Making a Shinobi
by readme-silly
Summary: A little advice was all Naruto needed to help him along, for better or worse. His story is only beginning, and his destiny remains undecided. AU, Promises to be epic.
1. Chapter 1

**-Prologue**

Konoha at dusk was quite lively in its own way. Shopkeepers and stall owners alike moved faster to keep up with the orders from villagers who had just got off work and were preparing to return to their homes. These were the hardworking men and women that kept the hidden village on its feet alongside the shinobi charged with their protection.

This was what set Konoha apart from most other ninja villages. The civilians lived and interacted with the ninja to a certain extent, promoting the crucial interrelationship that was needed to run things smoothly. Unlike in Iwa and Kiri, the ninja of Konoha did not discriminate or oppress the civilians to the point of being hated and feared by fellow villagers. The Tsuchikage and Mizukage often preached against this policy and insisted that it made Konoha weak, regardless of the fact that they were currently the strongest hidden village among the elemental nations.

Near the edge of the market district, a grey haired youth paid for his purchases and hefted his bag of groceries. Just before going on his way, the boy smiled at the pretty brunette managing the stall and waved goodbye, earning a blush in return from the girl.

Inwardly, Kabuto scoffed at how easy it was to infiltrate the place. These people were so trusting that, to him who had had to struggle and live in suspicion for nearly all his life, it was downright sickening. Not that his opinion mattered in any way, he was here to do his job and no more or less.

Sasori-sama gave him a mission as a spy in Orochimaru's ranks, who in turn ordered him to play the role of one Yakushi Kabuto, a well-established gennin and medic in training. His great interest in the art- yes, art, of medicine along with his unnatural talent in the field was what had first appealed to the Sannin and convinced him that Kabuto would be a great asset in the near future, securing his place among Orochimaru's men.

Kabuto contemplated his precarious position as he walked slowly back to his one-room apartment. Sasori-sama's training was partly why he had survived for so long uncovered in the snake-man's service. That and the shady man's control seal which flared up whenever thoughts of defecting or crossing to the other side presented themselves… Even now the thing pulsed in its dormant state at the base of his neck, reminding him where his loyalties should lie if he wanted to keep his life. What his master didn't realize or chose to ignore though, was that while the seal kept him from turning traitor, it still allowed the ability to dream, to have ambition. And boy, did he dream…

It was quite a close gamble for him. Kabuto had his own interests that were on par with Sasori's for the time being. At the moment he wished to use the resources that Orochimaru had at his disposal to further his own research that may benefit both him and Sasori. For this reason alone, the control seal had yet to label him as a traitor and blow up his spine. Otherwise, he was counting on Orochimaru to notice the seal at some point and break it for him since he lacked the skill to do it himself. After that, he would play double-agent for a while, and should Orochimaru prove worth it, stick with the Hebi Sannin for a while.

At this wandering thought the seal burned shortly then settled back down to its normal throb.

'Damn thing. So annoying-' Kabuto snorted at the crude piece of fuinjutsu.

The mark would only kill him if he actively betrayed Sasori, still allowing his thoughts free reign as he wished. A ghost of a smile showed on Kabuto's face. It wasn't like he was in any hurry anyway.

He would bide his time while getting stronger- all the better to throw the yoke off his neck when the time came. Besides, Orochimaru would do away with him, deeming him worthless, if he failed to keep up his current rate of growth. The snake man did not tolerate any signs of weakness or slowing down among his forces.

xxx

A small blond kid, barely seven years of age, scurried across the semi-lit alley, hugging close to the walls and making sure to stay out of view of the wrathful villagers who were trying to keep up with the daily evening rush. He warily poked his head out from the narrow passageway and eyed one particular shop which sold fresh fruits that were displayed out on its verandah. If he timed it just right, he would be able to make off with something to sufficiently fill his little aching tummy.

Naruto's mouth watered at the thought of stuffing himself full with those juicy, ripe grapes that were dangling off the edge of the pile.

It wasn't that he didn't have the money to pay for it, far from it actually. Naruto's dilemma sprang from the fact that those crummy villagers wanted absolutely nothing to do with him, and they would outright refuse him service whenever he tried to honestly buy things. He could live with that, yeah, as long as the few who served him kept doing so… but it was decidedly worse at these places. There, they glared at him with a fury that left him quivering in his tiny sandals, all the while charging him outrageous rates for their wares.

It was the glaring that stung Naruto worse than anything else, even worse than being ignored. When he was ignored, he could at least pretend to be part of the crowd. He could blend in with everyone else for a time, but when they turned to face him with those angry stares… It was like flashing a big sign over him declaring how much he was a thing to them; like he was an awful disease plaguing them and was not worth shit in any way. To Naruto, that hurt harder than a kick to the gut, which he often got from some of the other street-rats.

All of this was the reason why he made it his life's mission to force these people to acknowledge him. Whether it be through fear, intimidation, or adoration, he would MAKE them notice him. The old man who sometimes visited him was proof enough that it was possible, judging by the way the villagers groveled before him it would be all too easy to make them see him if he were in that position. Ojisan had told him once that he was the Hokage, a title bestowed to the strongest ninja in the village. That piece of information made Naruto aware that in a ninja village, only ninja gain any form of respect, and of those, the strongest was the most reputed; the most acknowledged.

If that's what it took, to realize his goal, then that's exactly what he would become!

Grrrn…!

But first, he really needed to eat.

Young Naruto continued watching the fruit stand, patiently waiting for his chance despite the small impatient growls being given off by his stomach. (Sometimes he swore the thing was a living entity on its own!)

'There!'

The short boy ran/walked into the gap in the criss-crossing line of customers, squeezing his way between legs and under skirts (mind out of the gutter you pervs!) to reach his prize- those oh, so delicious looking grapes! He knew needed to be careful, which was why he didn't just run dash there and snatch the damn things. If he moved too fast he would draw attention to himself, which was the last thing he wanted… right now at least.

It was too late that Naruto noticed the pair of legs heading his way, and he ran straight into them.

CRASH!

The purple garbed ninja and the ragged child tripped and fell over each other in an unceremonious heap in the middle of the market street.

Kabuto cursed his lack of awareness and fumbled for his fallen glasses, hoping they hadn't gotten smashed in the fall. Once he retrieved them he took a look at what, or who, had gotten in his way. Sensing movement before his eyes had focused completely, his hand flashed out just in time to grab the offender before he scrambled away into the crowd, but a ripping sound and the feel of loose fabric clenched in his fist told him that whoever it was had gotten away.

'Hm, what was that about?' He regarded the dirty white cloth in his hand. Kabuto shifted from where he was on the ground and turned to look at the commotion that arose in the nearby crowd.

"What was that? Did you see what happened?"

"It's the brat again!"

"Why can't that monster just leave us alone!"

"Which way did he go? I oughta give him a piece of my mind!"

"HE STOLE MY GRAPES, THAT HOOLIGAN!"

Amidst the angry shouts and calls, Kabuto picked himself up and dusted himself off. A quick stoop later and he'd collected his spilt goods from the ground, saving them from being crushed. He was just about to turn and leave when a flitting thought occurred to him.

On a whim, he walked away in the direction the kid had taken off, easily following the boy's tracks. He didn't know what it was that compelled him to take an interest but followed his gut instinct anyway.

'Besides, I might find something interesting…'

xxx

Kabuto's glasses reflected the meager evening light in the alley as he took slow steps towards the easily sensible chakra signature hiding behind the dumpster at the far end.

'Surprising amount for someone so young. I wonder if he's consciously emitting it or it's the spill from his normal reserves?'

Sounds of munching and slurping filled the vicinity as he got closer.

"Oh yeah, those grapes sure hit the spot!" *BURP*

The silver haired gennin's nose wrinkled in mild disgust but he continued walking towards the loud voice.

"KUSO! These were my best clothes, now I have to go digging around again!"

Kabuto smirked and moved into view of the small kid. "You know, little boys like you shouldn't be wandering alone in the streets."

Naruto yelped loudly and scurried back from the figure who had seemingly walked out of the shadows to address him.

"H-hey! Who the hell are you!" he stammered, glancing around wildly to see if there were more people waiting to ambush him. Why didn't he sense this guy coming? What if it was a trap from some of the gangs? Oh, boy… Naruto had paid before for his lack of awareness of his surroundings, and this one looked easily bigger and stronger than him.

Kabuto noticed this wary nature but didn't think much of it. He was, however, interested in the marks running across both of the boy's cheeks.

'Clan markings? No, not unless it's a dead clan I haven't heard of...'

He shook his head and upon closer inspection recognized the village pariah. He'd heard about him only a week after moving to Konoha. If he remembered right, the exact words told to him were, 'You're a foreigner, so I'll give you a heads-up; if you see that hellspawn make sure you give it what's for! Don't let it fool you into thinking it's human, because it isn't!'

Silly villagers and their superstitions… He was a scientist and didn't take garbage at face value without studying it himself.

"I believe this is yours." He held out the torn piece of the shirt to Naruto who was still eyeing him and looking out for an ambush. It wasn't the first time people had approached him with kind gestures only to give him a painful thrashing the moment his back was turned. It wasn't anything too serious that would cripple him for life, but, thankfully, he'd gotten more streetwise and knew not to take candy from strangers now.

A wiry hand flashed out and grabbed the fabric from Kabuto's outstretched grip but the boy kept his distance. The big piece from his t-shirt was too valuable to lose since he could always stitch it back on and avoid scavenging for a replacement. At least until the old man took him shopping again.

Kabuto smirked and lowered his gaze to fully take in his slightly shaking form. Naruto really felt uncomfortable under the older boy's creepy stare.

"Quit looking at me like that!" he snapped when he couldn't take it anymore.

Kabuto didn't respond, other than smiling a bit and adjusting the glasses on his nose once he was done with his examination.

"Well now," he started. "A little far from home aren't you?"

"Why do you care! And you didn't answer me, who the hell are you?"

Kabuto found he liked this kid's spunky attitude, even if he was a tad arrogant. All mouth and no skill, it sort of reminded him of… him. "Actually, I don't care. I merely find you interesting and possibly worth a little of my time."

Naruto didn't know what to make of this guy. Usually, by now they would have tried to chase him away (off their territory) or rough him up a little, not make conversation. His eyes narrowed in suspicion, "You're not with any gang, are you?"

Kabuto chuckled lightly. "Oh? I suppose not… As for who I am, it's none of your concern."

Naruto didn't ask any more personal questions. Just like this guy, he didn't care, or even want to for that matter.

"Uh huh… Are you gonna let me go now or do you wanna beat me up first?" He took a VERY shaky academy stance. It never failed to help somewhat even the odds against superior numbers. He just wished he had better instruction to use it to the fullest whenever he needed to.

Kabuto realized he was blocking the exit of the alley with the other side being a dead end. Still, he gave no indication that he was about to move.

"Do you go to the Ninja Academy?"

"Yeah, so?"

Ah. It made sense. No civilian urchin could have gotten away from him so fast like he did, it was actually quite the accomplishment on the young boy's part. He must have some knowledge on how to use chakra to augment his speed, subconscious or otherwise. Kabuto could almost see a ghost of his former self overlapping the kid, reflecting the desire to live and be above everyone else.

"Oy, mister! You keep staring at me like that and I'm gonna think you're out for me or somethin'!"

Hmm. Maybe he'd toss the gaki a bone to set him right. Might be interesting to watch what he did with the information he was willing to give him.

"It's really quite fascinating isn't it?"

"What is?"

"Chakra." Kabuto stated simply.

"Eh? What the hell is that?"

Kabuto would have face-faulted if he had less of a handle on his emotions. As it was, he merely quirked an eyebrow, "You don't know what chakra is? I thought you said you went to the ninja academy…"

"Oy, are you calling me stupid!"

"You called yourself that." Kabuto pointed out. "And, honestly, the more I see, the more I'm inclined to agree." He remarked in an off-handed manner, like he just realized he was wasting his time.

To his delight, Naruto's face was heating up in anger and the boy was just one step away from pouncing. 'I suppose there's something to this 'manipulating others' thing.' No wonder Sasori-sama never seemed to get tired of meeting with his subordinates. He was dangling them all on strings just like his puppets.

"I don't know who you think you are, but I'll kick your ass, Teme!" shouted Naruto.

Chakra flared slightly in the alley, causing dust and small paper scraps to rise in the small wind whipping around him. Kabuto inwardly clucked in disappointment. So much potential wasted, the brat barely had a grip on his chakra. That flare should easily have been ten times larger with the kind of reserves this kid had. And Kabuto so disliked seeing potential run into waste- unless he was the one ending it, of course.

Naruto was a bit surprised that the guy confronting him didn't seem even the slightest bit intimidated by the little dust and leaves show he put on. That trick always shook up his other attackers, but this one didn't even look like he'd noticed anything!

"Hey, aren't you even afraid or somethin'?" he asked, stopping his little display.

Kabuto looked insulted, "Why would I be afraid of an idiot like you?"

That was the last straw. Giving a throaty yell, Naruto jumped and swiped at the other boy's face, hoping to disorient him, and abandoned all attempts at using any kind of formal taijutsu.

It was too easy for Kabuto. He only had to raise his foot without moving from his position, and Naruto slammed right into it, driven by his earlier momentum. The blond tasted the underside of Kabuto's sandal just before it somehow stuck to his face and rammed the back of his head on the ground when Kabuto let his foot drop.

"What, you don't like hearing the truth?" Kabuto's eyes widened maniacally as he entered 'freak-mode'. "You don't like being told you're worthless? Well, get used to it, because that's exactly what you are-"

Naruto struggled helplessly under the weight of the foot on his face. Blood was now running from his nostrils and down the back of his throat, courtesy of his crushed nose.

"You're absolutely worthless," Kabuto continued. "Because you have a chance to make your life something more, and you're wasting it doing mediocre things as if you were normal!"

Naruto whimpered. It wasn't his fault he was the way he was. No one ever let him be something; no one gave him the chance to be more. It wasn't his fault!

Kabuto finally let up and released Naruto from under his sandal. The boy scuttled backwards, cradling his mutilated nose with one hand, the other balancing him from behind.

"Are you waiting to be handed everything, like some spoiled little prince? Oh, woe is me! I have a hard life so I'll just get through everything by sheer luck, and maybe someday, they'll even make me hokage!" Kabuto mocked. He suddenly became serious. "You should wake up from your little dream world. The REAL world doesn't work that way. If you wait your whole life for a chance to avail itself, you will never get it. You have to go out there with no excuses and grab it for yourself- even steal it from others if you have to."

Finished with his tirade, Kabuto pushed his glasses up his nose and brushed the fringes of his hair out of his face. It was starting to grow long, maybe he should tie it into a ponytail?

A sickening squelch brought his thoughts back to the alley just in time for him to see Naruto forcing his nose back into its natural position. The running blood had already stopped flowing and the angry red around the facial wounds was slowly lightening to a shade of pink. Kabuto's mouth hung open for a moment due to his shock at seeing Naruto's incredible rate of healing but he quickly schooled his features. There was more to this boy than meets the eye, but that was food for thought for another time.

"What am I supposed to do, huh?" Naruto spoke at last after hacking up a bloody loogie from the blood that went down his throat. "Nobody likes me, and those shit-for-head teachers at the academy won't teach me worth jack…"

"Are you serious?"

Naruto looked up inquisitively from where he was staring at the ground.

"You have more chakra than a gennin should, yet you don't even know what chakra is."

"Hey!"

"You obviously have a lot more free time than anyone else does, so why don't you actually do something constructive with it? Don't start crying about how the academy teachers won't show you anything. This is a ninja village and even an idiot like you can find something useful to work with if you look hard enough. Listen in on others' conversations, steal books and scrolls, experiment every once in a while. You want ninjutsu? Create your own. Taijutsu? Even the greatest ninja rely more on their reflexes and experience than a particular style. Genjutsu is worthless if you know how to see through it, and even easier to learn if you can. Weapons can be found littering any training ground and even the faultiest can be mastered given enough time, which you're clearly not short of."

Naruto's head was swimming with all the information this guy was throwing at him. He could really do all that? Why didn't anyone ever tell him so? For that matter, why was it like everyone was out to get him? Something hard struck his forehead causing him to drop his thoughts and glare at the grey-head. In his lap landed an apple which Kabuto had taken out of his bag of groceries.

Naruto held the fruit in a dirty palm as if unsure what to do with it. Kabuto just turned away from him to look at the amber glow of the sunset slowly recede into blue, and finally, a dark blue behind one of the shorter buildings visible from the opening of the alley.

"No one is born an idiot, not even retards. The sooner you learn to use your brain, Naruto-kun, the sooner you will break free from this world of the ordinary."

Naruto's head snapped up when he heard his name called but the weird guy was already gone, seemingly vanished into thin air. He shivered slightly when a draught brushed him from the uncovered side of his body where his t-shirt had been ripped. Naruto took his small gift, looking at the small highlight on the smooth red surface as he thought over everything that had happened in the past half hour. Another cool breeze hit him and he decided to think over the rest at his apartment.

'It's going to be a long night…' thought Naruto as he made his way home, his day having come to an end.

A/N: **Kabuto is about fourteen years old, I think. He wears a purple polo sweater that has vertical black stripes running from the armpits to the hem. His pants are the standard navy-blue but they are free around the shins and ankles and not wrapped. Sandals are the ordinary blue (I still don't get why the entire community wears one type of footwear). Naruto has the normal stuff you see him wearing in the anime as a kid, white t-shirt, blue shorts, but in this story they are close to being rags.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two: Testing Waters**

The sound of even footfalls echoed in the hallway as Kabuto approached his apartment door. He took his time removing his key and unlocking the door, then he swung it open excruciatingly slowly. Walking inside, he flipped on the light switch but froze in that position.

"I didn't expect to receive word so soon…"

Sitting on his sofa in the middle of the room was a person wearing a dark brown cloak with a hood. The shadows around him made it difficult to ascertain what his face looked like from a glance but Kabuto already knew who it was before he even unlocked his door. He ignored the person, moving to his kitchen area to put down his groceries on the counter-top.

"It's been two months now," The figure addressed him in a gruff tone, revealing it to be a man. "Sasori-sama wants your progress report."

Kabuto was meanwhile putting away his stock in various cupboards and stowing perishables in his modest-sized fridge. The task took about ten minutes and the man had followed his every movement since he walked into the apartment, though now seemed bristled about being ignored.

"It's unlike Sasori-sama to rush things," Kabuto finally said, packing a bit of cheese into the upper compartment of the cooler. He closed the door lightly. "Then again, he also doesn't like to be kept waiting does he? A paradox if I've ever heard of one."

"Watch your mouth, gennin." The man growled. "Now stop wasting my time and report, Sasori-sama is getting impatient."

Kabuto's eyes narrowed slightly behind his glasses, a motion wasted on the person sitting in front of him. Was there some reason Sasori wanted information on Orochimaru so urgently? Perhaps there was trouble in the 'paradise' that is Akatsuki. He didn't know too much about the organization anyway; Sasori was too cautious and paranoid to keep any of his spies in the loop. To him, they were all expendable at any moment in time therefore there was no need to let them in on any of his business. He gave orders, and they followed them to the letter. The system was as close to foolproof as it could be.

"I don't have much to say…"

The man stood up in near-fury at the admission but stopped himself from overreacting when Kabuto continued in an amused tone, "Orochimaru doesn't trust me as of now. Why do you think I've been delegated to keeping an eye in Konoha, far away from him? I'm just a sleeper agent, so there's no way I can get Sasori-sama the kind of information he wants right now."

The man relaxed upon hearing Kabuto's reason for lack of progress with a bit of shame from losing his cool so easily. Kabuto knew how to push his buttons and liked to make it look like he wanted to defect just to get a rise out of him. And he was so hoping for it to be true too so he could kill the arrogant twit. How disappointing.

"Be that as it may," the man spoke. "You have orders to do whatever it takes to earn Orochimaru's trust and find out what his plans are. Expect me in four months."

The mysterious cloaked figure turned to leave through the front door.

"Oh, and Kozuki-san…"

He paused at the door frame, halted by Kabuto's voice. One could imagine the deep frown on his face when he turned towards the younger man who was smirking.

"What?" he snapped.

"Your disguise needs to be less conspicuous," Kabuto walked back to his kitchen, purposely ignoring the fuming man on his doorstep. "Please shut the door on your way out."

Angry, and quite embarrassed because he knew it was true but didn't think of it before, Kozuki slammed the door as hard as he could and walked off in a huff, prompting Kabuto to chuckle to himself. He may have been younger but Kabuto had been working for Sasori far longer than Kozuki, which always left the other male feeling sour for some reason. Probably an ass-kisser for the higher-ups- what were they thinking, recruiting people like this? The fanatics rarely got the job done right, even if they had fewer cases of mutiny.

'Greenhorns…' He snorted, and went about preparing his dinner.

xxx

The first thing that Naruto did after his daily morning bowl of Ichiraku's was to go around the village, confirming what the creepy grey-haired kid had told him the evening before. He didn't think it was as easy as said, which was confirmed the moment he tried to eavesdrop on one errant jounin's conversation with a pretty chuunin kunoichi. Needless to say, that day he found out just how hard it was to shake off an elite of the village in a chase.

Two alleys, three sewers, five hedges and a hastily burrowed hole later, Naruto decided to leave listening in to older ninja for a later date after he'd thought it over enough not to get caught before he got something meaningful from it. He then chose to walk to some of the frequently used ninja training grounds, those being easier to get into because they were rarely fenced in or closed to the public.

Naruto thanked his lucky stars that there was no one using the area at the time other than what looked to be a pair of gennin racing each other while running up a tree, sticking to its surface with just the soles of their feet. Cool! Maybe one day he could try that? It would certainly help him get around easier. A stray thought made him wonder if this was how the guy from the alley made his face stick to his shoe. He probably used that thing called 'chakra'.

Shaking off memories of his most humiliating defeat ever, Naruto moved around the oblivious gennin and made a systematic sweep of the area, which took him the better part of two hours to finish without revealing his presence to the various ninja coming and going- mostly gennin and a few final-year academy students.

By the time he was done, little Naruto's newly mended shirt, being used as a makeshift bag, threatened to burst at the fresh seams from being weighed down by a great number of weapons. Kunai, makibishi, shuriken, a throwing knife or three, two tiny daggers he had no idea what they were for and even a slightly bent but still good (or at least it looked good) wakizashi. These were among the things he collected, not counting those he left behind because they were too rusted or too deformed for anyone to use. He even found a fancy kunai that looked like it was partially melted. It had two curved blades besides the normal straight one coming from the hilt, which had some kind of white enamel all around it where the grip normally was, on which was inked some kind of written language he couldn't read. It looked cool and interesting. He took it as well, hoping it was valuable and he could one day sell a design or the thing itself due to how rare it was (he had yet to see anything like that in his short life or he would definitely have remembered it).

A quick, shirtless, trip back to his apartment was needed to dump all that stuff for sorting through later. Since it was the weekend, Naruto didn't need to show up at the academy but he felt he should at least look into this 'chakra' that everyone was making such a big deal about. His was only into his first year at the academy, in the advanced class because the other children started at minimum eight years old.

It was a daily struggle to make head or tails of Hideki-sensei's lectures, and he missed the issuing of books, which meant he was always behind on class-work and theory. In actuality, the only thing he ever got from going to the academy was the practical exercises. Even then, he only kept up with the others thanks to his great stamina, repeating exercise after exercise, long after everyone had left just to get one right when all he had was gut-instinct to correct himself where he went wrong.

Contrary to what one would expect from a 'street-rat', Naruto loved reading books whenever he could get ahold of them. Sure, it was a hassle having to sit down and stare at static images for hours at a time, but the benefits far outweighed the costs in this case.

Books didn't discriminate, nor did they chase him away. The never called him names or glared at him. They didn't ignore him and he could always pick up one at his convenience. He got fantastic ideas and views of the world from other people's thoughts that were carefully put down for other people to easily understand them. This was why Naruto was mad at being denied his one source of comfort when he joined the academy. It was what made him lose all hope at redeeming himself, at least until the chance encounter in the alley.

As he walked along the path to the academy, skirting the usual one that went through the residential district and past the Uchiha compound, Naruto felt like slapping himself upside the head for being so stupid before. Why had he never thought of stealing the books they kept him away from? Did it really take someone beating him up to realize he hadn't been thinking all this time as far as his life was concerned?

Naruto really did feel worthless when he considered everything that glasses wearing boy told him. Was he really just going to coast through things and expect something good out of it? In a way, he was grateful for the beatdown, as it helped set him on a straight path to his goal (talk about an eye opener, huh?). All he needed to do now was follow it… Hmm, if he ever saw that guy again he might have to buy him a present.

xxx

"Naruto, what happened to your shirt?"

The boy paused in the act of shoveling ramen into his mouth to answer the Sandaime.

"Got torn," he grunted and turned back to his meal. "Tried to fix it." He explained between mouthfuls.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, Sandaime Hokage of Konoha let the matter drop reluctantly once he saw that Naruto had no intention of talking about it. Kami knows, he tried to help the child, he really did, but it would always seem that there was a limit to how much he was allowed to interfere. He had no doubt some errant villager was responsible for messing up his pseudo-grandson's clothes, but there was really nothing he could do about it. Things like this always happened the moment it seemed his charge had gotten settled in.

'I suppose another trip to the clothes store is unavoidable. I was hoping his current ones would last a bit longer but I guess there's no helping it.'

Naruto was oblivious to the elderly man's plight, preferring to take advantage of his wallet rather than dwell on what the Sandaime was probably thinking. Besides, he had his own agenda as well.

It was now about two weeks since the 'meeting in the alley' as he called it, and every day proved to him just how right Glasses-boy was in everything he said. He really did have a lot of free time compared to everyone else, and since he lacked anything better to do with it, he spent most of the days catching up on what he missed since starting in the academy.

A work ethic born of his drive to succeed helped him greatly in his studies, as well as the seemingly endless resources he had at his disposal. One should never underestimate the elements present in one's environment. Naruto was a survivor, having lived in the streets for a while now and now that his mindset was geared towards achieving his goal with no excuses, he could make use of nearly everything around him, including a 'god of shinobi' who happened to be sitting next to him drinking green tea in Ichiraku's ramen bar.

"Ne, Ojisan?"

Brought out of whatever musing he was doing, Hiruzen smiled down at Naruto, "Yes, what is it?"

Naruto thought for a moment, framing his question in his mind before asking it.

"When two shinobi meet, how do you decide who's more powerful?" Naruto asked in his most innocent voice. He didn't want to outright ask, 'Hey, how do I get power?' He wasn't THAT stupid. That would lead to suspicion, leading to less freedom and more surveillance; something he absolutely didn't want. After all, it took him weeks just to convince Sandaime to stop sending gennin teams to look after him.

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow in question. "And why would you want to know that, Naruto?"

"Well, we were learning about fighting in class and Hideki-sensei mentioned that a powerful shinobi always wins. That's why we should retreat when we know we have no chance, but I'm not sure when it's right to retreat or not." The line was rehearsed but Hiruzen didn't have to know that.

"So why didn't you ask Hideki-sensei during class or after it?"

'Huh. Should've known it won't be that easy. Time to play the sympathy card!'

Naruto expertly averted his eyes and lowered his voice to make it seem like he was reliving something extremely sad. "I did. He said he didn't have time to answer me, and that someone 'like me' didn't need to know in any case."

Not a total lie, but it was more along the lines of, 'Why should I give you special treatment, brat? There are others who need my help more, so stop being so selfish'.

Hiruzen flinched visibly, an action Naruto wondered about, and then sighed wearily in what for him meant disappointment. He gazed at the street outside the ramen shop, completely missing the triumphant grin that crossed Naruto's face.

'Hook, line and sinker! Can't negotiate for information my ass- take THAT Hideki-sensei!'

Hiruzen considered for a moment whether what he was about to do could account for favoritism but thought against it quickly.

'No one's ever stopped the other children from asking me questions when I visit the academy.' He decided it was acceptable to help out Naruto just this once without begrudging the others.

"Alright Naruto, listen carefully." Surprisingly, Naruto stopped what he was doing and hung onto his every word, a sure mark of a great student. Hiruzen almost felt giddy having someone listen to him explicitly and not just pretend to like those farts in the council.

"In the ninja world, power is decided through a fight. When you are up against your opponent is when you determine who is more powerful than the other. It's actually a relative subject for whoever you ask..."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you know about the ninja ranking system don't you?"

Naruto shook his head for no, making Hiruzen sigh because he had to explain something so obvious. Seriously, what was that man Hideki doing? He would have to have words with him one of these days. Of course, he had no way of knowing that Naruto was playing stupid to squeeze any new bit of information he could out of him.

"The ranking system, Naruto, is the hierarchy of authority followed by all ninja in the world."

Naruto's brow scrunched up in honest confusion this time. "What's hai… hei…"

"Hierarchy?"

"Yeah, that. What is that?"

"The chain of command; who is the boss of who, do you follow?"

He nodded slowly. "I think so…"

Satisfied, Hiruzen continued, "So, the ranks are jounin, chuunin and gennin. If you ask a gennin they'll tell you that a chuunin and jounin are more powerful, and likewise if you ask a chuunin, you'll hear that a jounin is more powerful."

Here, Hiruzen paused to take a sip of his cooling tea. He exhaled in delight of the taste then went on, "Power can be determined in a number of ways. No matter how you look at it, a fight has two parts to it," He held up two fingers. "The attack and the defense."

Naruto nodded slowly to show that he understood while mulling over what he was learning. Why didn't Hideki-sensei explain things this clearly when they were studying? He only ever used big words and complicated references that Naruto wasn't familiar with. Most likely on purpose too…

"The attack makes use of several aspects, the most important of which are speed, strength, precision and tactics or strategy. The faster a ninja is, the higher his chances of delivering a hit before his opponent can evade. The stronger a ninja is, the more damage he can deal to his opponent. The more precise he is means he wastes less energy attacking, and this greatly helps him outlast the fight."

"So, where do the cool jutsu fit in?" Naruto asked enthusiastically. Hey, at the core he was still only seven. Hiruzen chuckled, 'Kids these days, all they care about are flashy ninjutsu that aren't really worth much.'

"Ninjutsu are actually used least in a straightforward, normal fight. When two shinobi clash, the first round is largely decided by the use of weapons and taijutsu. This is to gauge the physical strength and speed of the opponent. For special people called 'chakra sensors' who can… feel… how much chakra someone has by being close to them, or even how potent it is, they also do this to size up the opponent even better. If the stronger of the two is able, he then ends the fight as quickly as possible while ensuring he gets little or no damage by the end of it-"

Naruto interjected with a question, "But, Ojisan, Hideki-sensei always calls off our spars after one hit is made. You're saying it like it doesn't matter if you get hit, as long as you can beat the other guy?"

Hiruzen nodded in understanding, "Those are academy spars, Naruto. You're not really expected to win at all costs. It's only supposed to help you grasp the aspect of precision before you work on your speed and strength later on your own."

He overlooked Naruto's 'Oooh, so that's why!' and continued, "So anyway, if the ninja find they are matched in both weapons and taijutsu, or the weaker ninja evades too fast for the other one to strike, the battle moves on to the strategy aspect. Here, all tools are usable, as well as ninjutsu, to build traps and corner the opponent in a way you can finish them off."

"That's it?" Man, what a let-down! "Can't you also use some really big ninjutsu to take everyone out?"

"Well, it depends." Hiruzen swirled the dregs of his now-cool tea around in the cup as he thought about Naruto's question. "Do you know whether your opponent has some obscure escape technique that will let him attack you while you're making your 'really big ninjutsu'? No? Maybe he has a suicide technique that will kill you both while you're preoccupied with 'taking everyone else out'?"

For some reason, Naruto felt like a really big idiot for asking that question.

"Naruto,"

The boy looked up at Sandaime, surprised at the soft tone being used.

"You have to remember that knowing many big jutsu won't make you invincible. It's how you use your head in a fight that's more important."

Hiruzen may have been speaking to Naruto, but he was talking about his biggest failure that had yet to be corrected; his wayward student, now missing-nin, Orochimaru. The one whose goal in life was to master every ninjutsu in the world; a fanciful and empty ambition, yet one he worked toward with absolute conviction. No one, especially Naruto, was to ever have a similar goal. Not if he could do something about it.

As if sensing the old man's gloomy thoughts, Naruto spoke out, bringing him back into the conversation. "Hey, Ojisan, you said something about defense?"

Hiruzen snapped out of his funk, "Ah, yes. Defense involves either avoiding your opponent's attacks completely, blocking them by neutralizing their effect or countering a strategy in progress from your opponent."

"Eh? How do you counter a strategy in progress?"

"There are a number of ways. Some are avoiding the trap entirely or blocking it as it comes, but the most common is to remove an element of the strategy from play. Like a tower of blocks, if you remove a block from the bottom, the whole thing crumbles."

Naruto scratched his head, "So, you can't use taijutsu and ninjutsu in defense, only strategy?"

"No, you still can," Hiruzen pulled on his beard for a moment, enjoying the intellectual conversation. It wasn't often he talked like this to someone, Asuma was out in the capital serving the Fire Daimyo, Keiri-chan was busy with Konohamaru (he was in his 'terrible twos') and Dozu, his first son and Konohamaru's father, was Kami-knows-where still on his 'research expedition'. He took after his sensei so much that Hiruzen sometimes wondered if he was really Jiraiya's son or his own.

"Ojisan…"

"Sorry about that," Hiruzen smiled. He was revisiting the past a lot today. "Ah, yes, ninjutsu and taijutsu. Good taijutsu, as you know, features effective blocking and dodging movements. Some ninjutsu, either offensive or defensive can be used to counter attacks. See, for example, if you used a fire jutsu as part of your strategy, I could use an offensive water jutsu to cancel out yours."

"Oh, so you can use one ninjutsu to block another one?"

'Heavens, what are they teaching kids these days?' "Of course you can! What do you think defensive jutsu means?"

Naruto didn't answer but let out a huge yawn.

The Sandaime's eyes crinkled when he smiled warmly, not for the first time in the day. "I think it's getting late, Naruto. You should go to bed or you'll be late for school tomorrow. Hurry up and finish your last bowl of ramen then I can escort you home."

Too tired to argue and slightly bored out from the lecture, Naruto relented and slurped up the last of his meal. Once done, he thanked Teuchi like the old man had taught him and allowed himself to be led back to his apartment.

Hiruzen gazed at the sleeping Naruto's face, wondering if it was a mistake telling him as much as he did during dinner. He had no doubt that Naruto would use the knowledge well, but he wished he could say the purposes would be honorable. When they were together, the boy would be cheerful and active, opening up to the man he looked up to as a grandfather. Yet, beneath it all Hiruzen could see a soul bitter at the world for casting him the unwanted lot. Almost exactly like Orochimaru had been…

In time, his beloved village would either make or break young Naruto. A sense of foreboding made him pray that when the time to choose came, little Naruto would use his strength for them and not against them. There was a powerful shinobi growing under the boy's shell and he wasn't the only one who could see it.

'Naruto, please take after your father's spirit. See these people for their good will and not their faults.'

A/N: **Just so you know, the plot's been written out so this is just the technical detail so you all don't go like, "WTF? HOW DID NARUTO GRAB A SUPER POWER-UP BEFORE UNLOCKING YOSHI'S PALACE?" (Mario fans get the joke, lol). I'll explain on who Dozu and Keiri are later in the story. Hope to catch more of your reviews, I'll post as is convenient every now and then. And remember to send in your ideas and pairing suggestions (No Yaoi or Yuri please, Het only) and I'll see what I can do with them. If you wanna adopt any of my stories, go right ahead but don't copy the title. The general idea you're free to do with as you please.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three: Grudge and Sacrifice**

Deep in the Uchiha Clan district, a secret meeting was being conducted comprising of all the ninja that bore the name. Alas, the hidden room was nothing close to as silent as the night outside.

"We have been Konoha's dogs for too long!"

"It's time we took action!"

"How Madara would weep if he could see us all."

The reason for their ire stemmed from the suspicion and discrimination they faced from the ninja community of Konoha.

The Uchiha got the worst missions, save for Itachi, of course.

The Uchiha were given a whole clan district to themselves; far away from everyone else and where they could easily be snuffed out at a moment's notice.

The Uchiha were all avoided by nearly all their counterparts, save for Itachi who was required to interact with them as an ANBU captain.

The last Uchiha to be promoted, save for Itachi, to chuunin or jounin was over five years ago!

It seemed that everywhere you looked nowadays, Itachi was the only Uchiha that didn't get the short end of the stick. In fact, if it wasn't for him and his achievements, the Uchiha would be nothing but lapdogs for the Konoha Council. But still, even then…

'Itachi, you were supposed to be the one to bring this clan back to its former pride, and now… we can't trust you like we should.' A weary Fugaku sighed as elder after elder continued voicing all their problems.

Indeed, Itachi was the only ninja not present at the meeting. Good thing too, not a few clansmen were unhappy with the differential treatment the teen got compared to them.

"Enough!" Fugaku decided he had let them ramble long enough. The immediate silence spoke of how much they respected him. "You are all correct with your descriptions of the way things have been run in the last few years. Konoha has wronged us, yet they use our name and power to their own ends! It is high time we take it all back!"

A round of shouted agreement passed through the room before Fugaku went on, "My brothers and sisters of the clan, Madara did not lead us into glory so we could fall into shame! Our fathers rejected him, and look where we stand now! But I promise you this, the age of Konoha will soon come pass, and the Uchiha will rise from the ashes, fanning our flames brighter than the Senju's!"

Loud applause rang throughout the room. Nobody noticed a small trail of black dust stream out under the door and disappear into the night air above the underground bunker.

The Uchiha were still pumped with their fiery determination when one lone, wary voice stood out from the rest.

"What will we do about the Kyuubi?"

Like a thick blanket, silence descended on the rejoicing men and women.

"Who said that?" Fugaku demanded to know who dared carry doubt where there should be none.

Individuals shifted left and right until the person was revealed. Uchiha Fuugo, the senior-most elder of the council stepped forward unashamedly. He was hunched over in old age, covered from neck to toe in a thin, dark-brown cloak. His face bore many scars and lines; a testimony to his experience in battle and warfare, just like the blue cloth covering his sightless eyes. His gray hair had long since lost its luster and now hung pitifully limp on his wrinkled scalp.

"The Kyuubi is a powerful being that is under the control of the Sandaime Hokage," the old man spoke in his soft, withered tone. "If he unleashes that force against us, what are we going to do? None of us bears the art that can suppress the might of the strongest of bijuu; the knowledge was lost when Madara-sama died with it. The only one who might have stood a chance already fell to it-"

Fugaku unconsciously flinched in painful memory (and… guilt?) of the fate that had befallen his younger brother. "Great Elder, the Kyuubi was sealed eight years ago. We have nothing to fear from it."

The ancient man did not look convinced. "Yet my servants tell me it is reclaiming its power."

Fresh murmurs broke out across the gathered. It was the hottest news since Itachi got promoted to ANBU captain at age thirteen. About a year ago, the Nine-Tails brat was just that, a brat. Something had happened though, and now the gaki was shaping up into a shinobi that promised to be greater than Itachi, greater than Hatake Kakashi, hell, even greater than Yondaime!

Fugaku frowned like many of his clan members were doing. It was true what the old man was saying. His own contacts at the academy reported that in the recent months, Uzumaki Naruto had yet to lose a single spar in class, even against the senior graduating students! When the instructors had tried rigging the fights in favor of whomever the fox boy was facing, Uzumaki had risen to the challenge and come out victorious. Nothing they could do, short of administering chuunin examination protocols, could stop his growing success. Even more worrying was that the Uzumaki had the intelligence to back up the skill…

Harsh-slightly crazed-laughter sounded across the room, echoing off the walls and ceiling. Everyone halted their thoughts and (except Fuugo) turned to see who it was.

A short-haired young man with a snub-nose was laughing his ass off in front of disbelieving eyes. When he finally stopped short with a few last chuckles, he noticed that all the attention was on him.

"Oh, don't mind me!" he waved his hands comically. "I just think it's funny that the mighty Uchiha feel threatened by an ac.. aca… ACADEMY STUDENT!" He burst into another fit, desperately grabbing his sides to stop them heaving. A few clan members looked ashamed at the honest admission and had their eyes trained to the floor.

"This is no laughing matter, Shisui!" barked Fugaku, instantly silencing his subordinate. "If the boy can use the Kyuubi already, even you would lose to that kind of power!"

Shisui turned serious, almost like shifting masks on his face. One could swear that he was now a whole other person.

"With all due respect, Fugaku-sama," he began. "I have served in the front lines of Third Great Shinobi War. I was also there the night Kyuubi came to Konoha, and again, I was at the front."

Fugaku might have slapped himself for disregarding that, but even he had no idea prior to now.

"The boy is just that- a boy. If you're all so afraid of what he might become," eyes narrowed threateningly. "Then leave him to me. Let me deal with him for you."

His body flickered on the spot like an interrupted radio signal.

"Let me introduce him to Shunshin no Shisui!"

Personally, Shisui felt like he had just taken up a worthless chore worthy of D-rank status, but the Uchiha needed to make an early example that they were not to be toyed with, starting with the hokage's pet.

Fugaku nodded slowly. "The task is yours then. Do not fail us, Shisui, you know what could happen if we are linked to this too early."

"Hey, who do you think you're talking to, huh?"

xxx

Danzo thought over the report of agent 218 who had been stationed at the Uchiha district just three hours ago.

'So, the Uchiha are planning treason?'

The old war hawk had always been wary of the wielders of the copy-wheel eye. Their doujutsu made them as much of a threat as they were a blessing to the village, which was why he pushed for their isolation in all the council meetings concerning them.

How lucky that 218 had been on the shift tonight. His information-gathering skills could only be bested by Yamanaka mind-readers, and his intel was always accurate.

Danzo's wrinkled face grimaced before it molded into a hint of a smile. The situation required caution and could leave Konoha on the verge of civil war, but perhaps it could be worked into his direct AND indirect benefit?

Already making plans, Danzo headed off into his secret ROOT base to plot out the conversation he would soon be having with Sarutobi.

xxx

A new day found Naruto waking up to a bright morning and a lively chorus of bird-chirp.

'Damn birds! Go away!' he swiped at their general direction, peering through half-lidded eyes. As if mocking him, they started up again, even louder. Naruto nearly jumped out to yell at them but then remembered where he was.

The rest of the animals in the forest might not take kindly to his shouting out loud at six in the morning.

Not that they were actually sentient, but Naruto discovered a while back that a lot of the creatures that lived in Konoha's forests were not content early risers.

A bird managed a small 'cheeirp!' just before it was struck and ingested.

Like that hanging vine snake up in the tree there.

Naruto rose and yawned, stretching his arms to work the stiffness out of them. He scratched his butt like most males would while looking around the forest area he had fallen asleep in the previous night.

'Didn't even cover myself, I'm lucky it didn't rain.'

The boy was fast growing tired of having to hold impromptu camping trips, though it was necessary if he wished to keep training while maintaining a steady diet. With the villagers ever more reluctant to serve him at their shops and stores, he could only survive on cup ramen for so long before it got to him.

If he didn't think of looking for supplementary food sources on his own soon enough, he might have fallen into a trap of centering his whole life on ramen and refusing to ingest anything that didn't even come close.

Naruto shuddered at the thought. The horrors that may have become of him from living in such an unsightly way… He could have turned into a four foot-six sized midget by his fourteenth birthday!

'Bad thoughts!' he quickly banished the image of a stunted, stick-armed, orange-jumpsuit-wearing, fourteen-year-old Naruto screaming 'RAMEN!' from his mind.

Eww. He sure wouldn't be sleeping well with that image haunting him tonight.

Giving another yawn for good measure, Naruto stumbled away into the foliage to catch breakfast. Hopefully he would have time to get in some more training later before heading to the stream down the hill for a bath.

xxx

Shisui employed his great, and finely honed, tracking skills to find the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. Every trick he knew was used. He didn't know the meaning of the word 'failure'. Nosiree, no half-assed jobs from this cat, jack! A scampering mouse in the dense forest wouldn't have missed his attention, now that he was in 'blood-hound mode'.

Shisui paused in his hunt. Yes, blood-hound. A hound out for blood. A fitting name to add to his growing collection of unhealthy titles.

So how could he have missed an ACADEMY STUDENT taking A FREAKIN' BATH WHILE SINGING, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!

The elite jounin gnashed his teeth, flexing his fingers as he imagined them wrapping around the blond (who was waving his ass in the air, coincidentally in his direction, while bathing) ingrate's neck and squeezing the life out of him, drop by friggin' drop.

The brat had led him on a wild goose-chase with his false tracks (how was he supposed to know that Uzumaki would be practicing evasion tactics today?) and for hours he had grown frustrated and mad after circling the same tree over and over and over… Argh! He nearly let the tree-vine snake sink its fangs into him when it suddenly dropped on his shoulder from above, just to make it stop!

Now he was gearing to murder the little twit… For real.

Of course, he had to first wait for him to pull on his clothes and equipment pouches/holsters. There was no honor in defeating a naked opponent, especially a kid.

That was just wrong.

He didn't have to wait long though, much to his relief.

Naruto was wondering if he should head to class later or just skip for the whole day when he was punched in the head from behind, sending him sprawling all over the forest ground, mucking up his freshly washed clothes and body.

The annoyed child leapt back up to his feet yelling, "What the hell! That was such a cheap shot. Ugh! Now I have to take a bath again!"

His attacker just shook his head. "This is what they were afraid of? My, how the mighty have fallen…"

Naruto didn't think he should trust this guy, after all, he did throw the first punch. "Whaddaya want, mister?"

"Oh?" Shisui pondered mockingly. "I was thinking maybe I could kill you, then go have lunch. Or maybe I should have lunch and come back later? Hmm… But you won't be here by the time I'm done, and my favorite restaurant takes so long to order service, but the food there's just so good! How about I try this other place…"

Naruto ignored the man's ramblings, having only caught the words 'kill you'. He was shaking where he stood, not knowing if he even had time to run or if it was too late for him now. He knew that he was getting better lately, being able to best everyone in academy spars, but that was the academy. In the real world that Glasses-san and Ojisan had described to him, he had no delusions that he would even stand a chance on his own.

'Naruto, you have to remember that knowing many big jutsu won't make you invincible. It's how you use your head in a fight that's most important.'

'Ojisan was right. I've got to use my head here, and if this guy really wants to k-kill me, I might be able to get away. I've slipped those Uchiha police before, I can do this!' Naruto gulped when he noticed the fan emblem on the back of the man's shirt when he turned around to look at the position of the sun, still muttering.

"…and it's kinda getting late, but that's because you wasted my time getting here, so I'm just going to kill you now." A shuriken appeared in his left grip. "Hold still, I don't want this to be messy!"

Naruto yelped when he barely dodged in time and the shuriken left a wicked cut near his temple. He gingerly felt the wound that was slowly closing up even as the blood ran from it.

"Oho! So you're hard to kill, huh? Excellent!" The man drew a kunai, smiling in glee after seeing Naruto heal so fast. "It'll be fun finding out what makes you die and what doesn't! Here I come-"

Shisui practically announced his charge and pounced on the young pre-gennin who was trying to frantically make handseals. Ha! This was too easy, he didn't even need his sharingan for this chore!

Unfortunately, the kunai passed right through the boy and seemed to curve back on him. Seeing the makings of an illusion, Shisui backed up in time to see the kid's image waver and disappear.

'Where did he go now?'

Naruto panted, more out of his own fright than fatigue as he leapt onto another tree branch and hid behind its trunk to catch a breath and still his racing heart.

What the hell was going on? Didn't the Uchiha work for the hokage or something? Why was this one trying to kill him?

His musing was interrupted by loud clapping. Naruto looked up to see the guy on the branch above him.

Shisui whistled. "Whoo! I'm really losing my edge if I didn't see you replace yourself, but you can blame the hokage for that, and sending me on courier missions every day. What was that clone technique you used by the way? It wasn't a normal bunshin and it didn't exactly feel like an illusion either-"

"Y-you can't kill me!" Naruto's frantic shout had Shisui quirking an eyebrow. Surely the kid wasn't that naïve?

"O-ojisan will find out, and he's gonna get you for it!"

Shisui surmised that this 'Ojisan' was the Sandaime. In that case, since he was going to kill him anyway, there was no harm in messing around with him a bit.

"How do you know 'Ojisan' isn't the one who sent me here?"

Naruto's lip quivered slightly "You're lying! The old man would never do that!"

"Why not, hm?"

"Because… because, he's the hokage!"

"And how does that matter? You really think he has the time to worry about some sorry ass-wipe like you? How do you know that the villagers didn't ask for him to dispose of you? You do know that they all hate you, don't you?"

"But… why?"

Shisui activated his sharingan out of necessity. He didn't want the gaki to pull another fast one on him and he needed to wrap this up quickly. "Because you aren't one of them. You're not even human, kid-"

Naruto gasped.

"You're just a little rat free-loading off everyone else. Now die!"

His instincts were what saved him from the overhead thrust, and a quick pivot spin allowed Naruto to jump to the next huge tree branch which he dashed along the underside of.

"You're not getting away!"

A quick glance over his shoulder showed that his pursuer was almost upon him. Naruto quickly cut the chakra flow on his legs and drop/flipped to the ground where he took off from immediately he landed. Knowing he was going to be cut off from the front next, he swerved to the side, narrowly avoiding the tip of the blade being plunged into his ribs. He replaced himself with a rock that was behind him and took off in yet another direction. He'd been training in these specific woods for weeks and knew them much better than his attacker did. Plus, he'd picked up a few tricks from the street gangs about dodging the police patrols.

Shisui missed another strike and cursed loudly. He hadn't rusted this badly, had he? No, the kid was just good at slipping out of his grasp. The gaki always had some trick up his sleeve, and apparently, he knew how to fool the sharingan. Perhaps there was some founding to his clansmen's fears?

'He's just getting lucky.' Shisui thought to himself and went ahead of Naruto to cut him off yet again. His sharingan detected a flare of chakra right next to him where a fallen branch lay. He smirked and focused on it in readiness to stab the child the moment he pulled out of the kawarimi.

Shisui was largely surprised though when he heard the tell-tale 'swish' of a shuriken closing in on him, and he just managed to pull his head back to only get a long graze on his cheek.

Disbelieving, the jounin tasted the blood running down the side of his mouth as he looked past the chakra smoke generated by the replacement to see a rock now in place of the branch.

'Object kawarimi!' he thought. That meant his target was still in position and he had diverted his sharingan for nothing.

"**Bunshin no jutsu!**" yelled Naruto, pouring enough chakra into the technique to fill the section forest with doppelgangers. He still couldn't make fewer than twenty at a time but that would work in his favor in this case.

Shisui laughed inwardly at the futility of the E-rank jutsu. That is, until he laid eyes on the clones themselves. Apparently, by adding more chakra than was required, but just enough that the construct didn't collapse, each bunshin had a sort of 'chakra haze' around it which threatened to fog up the sharingan's sight.

Shisui growled in frustration. While the clones surrounding him were still immaterial, Naruto was using kawarimi to constantly shift positions between them. Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem and he would have just tracked the brat to where he was going to appear next, but the haze from the bunshin was making it difficult to focus on just where that was.

Dodging a few projectiles from the flittering Naruto, Shisui activated the technique that earned him his famous nick-name, and proceeded to phase out all the clones in the vicinity with a single touch to dispel the chakra. Mere seconds passed before the area was clear and Naruto-free once more. Shisui panted lightly from having to use so many body-flickers in such a short space of time, but the slight fatigue did not dull the pain of a second gash on his other cheek.

He was livid, and really out for blood now. The Kyuubi boy had evaded him for too long, and even managed to get two licks at him! Shunshin no Shisui was done playing, and the brat had better start praying to whatever Kami might listen for a quick and painless death.

Poor Naruto finished his last kawarimi, panting hard, only to get launched into a thick, hard tree-trunk by a powerful knee strike to his chest. He fell over, spitting blood with a searing, blinding pain in his back.

Shisui used the hilt of his tanto to viciously smack down the boy who was trying to rise to his feet. He acquired a mad glint in his eye as he raised the blade, savoring the moment right before he drove it into the jinchuuriki's skull.

It was not to be, however, because his strike was blocked by an ANBU greave that held fast, keeping his tanto at bay.

"Itachi!"

The taicho nodded solemnly. "Shisui."

He leapt back a little, narrowing his eyes at his cousin. "If you are for the Uchiha, you will stand aside and let me complete my mission!"

Itachi only spared a glance at Naruto, who was almost rising to his knees. "Leave now. Tell anyone of this and I will kill you."

Naruto caught the no-nonsense tone Itachi was using and hurriedly staggered to his feet, stumbling out of the thicket and away from the two Uchiha. He was certain the new arrival was as likely to gut him as save him.

"Itachi, you would betray the clan?"

His response was to activate his sharingan.

Shisui yelled out a battle cry and lunged with his tanto.

xxx

Naruto stumbled into his apartment, tumbling through the open window at the back. He didn't want to risk being seen entering through the front, his mouth, face and the back of his shirt covered in blood. He staggered into the bathroom and threw up a mix of vomit and blood into the toilet.

After puking some more and dry-heaving for a moment, he sat down on the white tiles and leaned back on the cool concrete wall to catch his breath. His wounds were nearly all healed but his mind was thoroughly shaken up.

Those were Uchiha Shisui and Uchiha Itachi back in the forest! And Shisui tried to, nearly, killed him!

And Ojisan…

Naruto shook his head frantically. No, Shisui must have been messing with his head. But still, everything else he said was true. The villagers hated him enough, moreso when he started excelling in the academy. The old man could have caved in to the pressure and allowed them to send someone to do him in.

Naruto didn't want to consider such hurtful things right now. He had just narrowly escaped death, literally being rescued at the last minute. And even then, his 'savior' threatened to finish the job if he so much as alluded to his having been there. Something big was playing out, and he was unfortunate enough to get caught in between.

The shell-shocked boy wearily got up to clean his wounds and dispose of his bloodied clothes, resolving to look into the matter later when he didn't feel like he was about to collapse.

xxx

Itachi emotionlessly dumped his cousin's body into the nearby stream, ignoring the little rivulets cascading down his face from his eyes.

He allowed himself a small sniffle. The Uchiha… Why did it have to come to this? Family fighting family, brother claiming the life of brother… The madness had to end.

Unknown to him, the three tomoe in each of his eyes morphed and swirled, merging together into a solid three pronged shuriken shape with a hole in the middle.

Itachi went back to the battle area and started cleaning up his tracks. He had arrived, following a chakra spike, to find the Nine-tails kid running from a chasing Shisui and deduced the latter must have been sent to do away with the threat by his clan. He had to hand it to Uzumaki for lasting as long as he did. He had copied the move used to confuse Shisui, and actually used it in his own fight to get the upper hand against his cousin. It was a formidable counter to the sharingan and, with a little tweaking, Itachi felt he could comfortably take on an Uchiha army with it.

The teen sighed once he was done erasing evidence of his presence. With the way things were going lately, he might soon have no choice but to do just that to preserve the peace in Konoha.

xxx

"Fugaku-sama!"

The mentioned clan-head looked up from the paperwork in his office. The staff knew not to disturb him when he was battling with the hated responsibility. This had better be good.

"What is it?"

"Uchiha Shisui has been found dead!"

Fugaku paled on hearing that. Shisui? Impossible! He was one of the best, right up there alongside Itachi!

"Have they caught the one responsible?"

The guard shook his head no. "There were no indications linking to his murder, except a battle site near where his body was found."

Fugaku rose from his chair. "And what did they find? Answer me!"

The guard hesitated. He didn't know how the man would take the news.

"There were signs that it might have been the Kyuubi-"

The wooden chair smashed against the window loudly, prompting a number of the staff outside the office to go into panic. The messenger cowered under his clan-head's glare.

"WHAT!"

"It hasn't been confirmed yet, just speculation from the signs, Fugaku-sama!"

Fugaku willed himself to calm down. He needed a clear head to think through this.

His fist slammed down on the desk. He'd warned Shisui, he'd warned him dammit! The fool must have gone in without preparations at all, possibly underestimating the child! Now they had lost a veritable factor in their operation.

"Send the word, call for a clan meeting!"

"HAI!"

Fugaku's hands bunched into shaking fists. With Shisui gone, their plans would be set back, even further now that the jinchuuriki's strength had been confirmed. Konoha would not be going down easily.

Perhaps it was time Itachi was included in the operation. He might be the only one now with the ability to defeat Kyuubi.

Noticing the staff all eyeing him warily, he barked, "Get back to work!"

Shaky yeses could be heard as the men and women scrambled back to whatever they were doing.

"And bring me another chair!"

xxx


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four: Consequences**

Hiruzen didn't want to believe the rumors. Uchiha Shisui dead, and Naruto responsible? It was absurd to even think about!

Yet there was no evidence to the contrary.

The Sandaime rubbed his forehead with a palm. It was amazing that the Uchiha weren't already calling for blood. Just what kind of situation had Naruto gotten himself into?

"Hokage-sama," the secretary poked her head through his office door. "The elders are here."

Hiruzen waved for her to let them in. The saggy wrinkled faces of Homura, Koharu and Danzo soon showed themselves when they walked into the office. Hiruzen had to stifle the urge to scream at them for interrupting his quiet time, but the issue must have been a serious one for Danzo to have requested the meeting.

When they were all settled smugly in their seats did the hokage call everything to order.

"Why are we here, Hiruzen? The last meeting was but a few days ago, surely nothing in the village has digressed so far as to call for us?" said Koharu as shrewdly as ever. She too didn't appreciate being called away from interacting with her grandchildren and family for menial matters.

"I was hoping Danzo could enlighten us on the matter," replied Sandaime. "He is the one who requested it, after all."

They all turned expectantly to him. The war-hawk kept his gaze on the window to the side which overlooked the village. Their patience was tested as the man took his time before answering, "Our magnificent village is strong, and has been so for many years, yet the facets that make it up threaten to separate."

"Stop speaking in parables and get to the heart of the matter, Danzo!" said an irritated Homura.

The Sandaime, however, was contemplative.

"You suggest there might be a revolt from one of the major clans?"

Danzo smiled inwardly. 'So quick on the draw, Hiruzen. Yet another reason you, and not I, became hokage.'

"It has come to my attention," he supplied, making the other two gasp in shock at the meaning. "Through my old associates, I have learned that there is unrest among the Uchiha."

"But… the Uchiha have been a loyal faction for so long," protested Koharu. "To think that-"

"People can only stand poor treatment for so long until they are fed up with it." Hiruzen spoke again. "If I remember well, Danzo, you were the one who pushed for their relocation and, unless I am mistaken, you were a key voice in many of the village decisions to back them into a corner."

All eyes rested on the half-blind man who shook his head solemnly. "I only wished to protect Konoha from the threat they would one day pose. Can you blame me, after what Madara did to Hashirama-sensei, not to have trusted them? And my fears have found root in the end; the Uchiha have not accepted the lot they were given and wish for more when they have all that they could need."

Hiruzen narrowed his eyes. "The Uchiha are not emotionless beings, Danzo. There are some things that cannot be compensated for with food or large grounds. Those are the things you opted to deny them."

"Regardless, we must live in the present. The situation is here and now and we need to address it."

Homura decided to speak up, "Could it be related to the speculated incident concerning the Uzumaki?"

Danzo shook his head no. Though it was an issue to look into, it was not a pressing one.

"If that were the case, they would be at our doorstep as we speak. No, the death of Uchiha Shisui is being kept under wraps for their own reasons. I suspect it might set back whatever they are planning if a full investigation were to be conducted in the eyes of the public." More like they didn't want an investigation of their questionable agendas.

Koharu contributed her piece, "What are you saying, Danzo. You make it sound as if the Uchiha want to take over Konoha!"

Danzo sighed, "That might indeed be the case, but we cannot be absolutely sure. After all, we have so little information to fall upon."

"I find it surprising we have any information at all." Hiruzen was almost sure now that Danzo still kept his ROOT forces active.

Danzo's expression, if you could call it that, suggested he was shrugging. "Good favor must be on our side to have learned as much."

Homura spoke up, "So we gather concrete intelligence before we explore our options then?"

Danzo nodded. "We need to send in a spy." He didn't want it known that he already had first-hand confirmation of the revolt. Also, he needed time to contact someone for one of his plan's phases before anything could be done about the Uchiha. "I suggest Uchiha Itachi."

Hiruzen was put on guard. "Why him? Why not send in our own?"

"The Uchiha are a conservative lot, and they trust no one but each other. No matter how good an infiltrator we choose, if he or she is not of their blood we might as well be trying to reach the clouds as snakes."

Hiruzen grimaced slightly at the comparison Danzo used. He still didn't take well to allusions of his former student.

Undeterred, Danzo went on. "I have it on good word that Itachi is fiercely loyal to Konoha, and he is something of a pacifist underneath his cold nature. We can count on him to relay information from inside his clan if to him it means keeping conflict at bay."

Hiruzen would have loved to know just how Danzo got his 'good words', but they were here to confront a dire issue, not squabble with each other. It also wouldn't look good for a hokage.

The Sandaime sighed, thinking over plans of how Itachi would be brought into the loop. It appeared Naruto would have to wait awhile as they solved this problem before it could grow into something worse.

xxx

Itachi was strangely conscious of his surroundings as he descended the steps into the secret shrine, and current location for the secret clan meeting.

'Could they have found out my involvement with Shisui's death?'

It still brought tears to his eyes when he remembered that he had been the one to snuff the life of his best friend, probably the one who kept him sane from the ANBU business with his light humor and fun personality. The darkness now threatened to overcome him, and he needed a way out of it. It didn't help that the clan was so conservative with its affairs nowadays; he'd rarely spoken to nor seen his parents in the last few days. Just what was going on?

"Itachi, it's… comforting that you've come." He was greeted at the door of the room.

Itachi nodded at the shinobi who went on, "Let's go, your father is waiting."

Inside the room he was surprised to find every active shinobi of the clan present. In fact, there were others he was sure he had never seen before.

"Itachi…" Fugaku stood near the panel where the elders were sitting.

"Father," he greeted back. He was motioned to join him.

"My son is here, the meeting can commence." Fugaku nodded to the elders.

Fuugo, as senior-elder, stood first. "My fellow clansmen and women, in the past months, we as the Uchiha have…"

Itachi was shocked when the ancient man and the rest of the speakers including his father went on to speak of their preparations to overrun and lay siege to Konoha. Apparently, it wasn't the first meeting of this nature. Just why would his people wish to sow the seed of chaos and discord at a time when they were all enjoying peace among the elemental nations?

Itachi had never been a fan of the way the clan prided itself on its ideals. Where they complained, he saw that what they got was far better than what most would. They didn't have to be as rich and influential as the Hyuuga to prosper. Trade was already good and none of them were sent on dangerous missions which had high risk of death or worse, more than he could say for so many others including those under his command. Rarely was it heard that a father or mother lost his or her sons and daughters on suicide runs.

Where they argued, he could tell they were mostly in the wrong, sometimes way off the mark. The Uchiha had the idea that they were above anything and everything, taking what they pleased without thinking of getting the consent of their peers. Even from an early age, they taught their children that they were not to associate with 'commoners' who were beneath them, something he tried to repeatedly knock out of Sasuke. His father had then gone and taught his little brother the Grand Fireball Technique to set him above his age-mates, ruining everything he had instilled in the boy about humility. That stung deep his heart where no enemy's kunai could ever reach.

Even their pride and joy, the sharingan, was a thief's tool in Itachi's eyes. He detested its ability to copy jutsu so much that he made it his life goal to only ever use that which he mastered with his own two hands. Even the recent technique he got from Uzumaki wasn't really copied as much as reconstructed with the concept being as simple as it was. In any case, as the only one who held such principles, it was no real surprise that he was the only Uchiha ninja with a (sort-of) social life outside the clan. It was no surprise he was the only Uchiha trusted to be around other shinobi.

"…which brings us to our most pressing issue at the moment, Itachi?"

The youth broke out of his stupor to bow to Fugaku.

"Yes, Honorable Clan Head?" In a congregation such as this, there were no fathers and sons. Itachi had to force himself not to spit at them all.

"We have reason to believe the Kyuubi jinchuuriki is responsible for the death of Shisui."

Itachi's eyes grew wide. 'Why would they think that?' He then felt the urge to slap himself upside the head. He had erased his tracks, thinking nothing of the jinchuuriki's. If they had deemed him a threat before they would obviously be even more wary of him now. Itachi really felt like an idiot, he had been so grief-stricken he hadn't even thought to cover up Shisui's untimely death as a suicide or something.

"And we now hope we can look to you to rid us of this threat before it can grow further. Can we count on you to avenge our fallen clansman, and dye the ground with the blood of our enemy?"

Avenge… How he hated that word! And it was anything but a request, the clan was ORDERING him to slay the child he had been forced to kill his cousin to protect!

Best to play by ear then until a reasonable solution presented itself.

"The Uchiha can count on me, Honorable Elder."

xxx

_Two days later…_

Hiruzen sighed for what felt like the hundredth time that day. He had just come from a meeting comprised of the elders, himself and Itachi, and really needed a cup of green tea to still his nerves. Itachi had confirmed all of their fears without even the need to investigate, going so far as to say he had been approached with the task of eliminating young Naruto who was deemed a threat.

'Why this, why now?' Danzo had completely refused the prospect of negotiation with them, saying there was no choice but to wipe them all out when a chance availed itself.

Hiruzen was aware of the brutal tactics usually resorted to in warfare, but to destroy an entire clan! Even he, the god of Shinobi, the Great Professor, could not accomplish such a task without feeling sick two minutes in.

Which was why he was utterly disgusted when Danzo suggested that Itachi be the one to do it. Even more when the teen agreed to, saying he had a jutsu that might fare well against the sharingan. Where did he even get a thing like that?

To murder your own family, even for the sake of keeping peace, was inconceivable. But he had no choice but to submit when Itachi insisted that there was no other option available to them at the moment. He still wondered why Danzo had been so enthusiastic (more than his normal nature) with agreeing to the decision, but he was unable to get a read on him.

Hiruzen again wondered why he hadn't chosen a successor yet. All this work was wearing on an old man's bones.

xxx

Deep in the underground cavern, what one might call the very roots of Konoha, a solemn silence resided in the gloomy stretched near-darkness. Small taps echoed on the far walls, the result of Shimura Danzo's cane tapping on the stone floor.

The one-armed man approached a kneeling figure bound at the hands and feet, his face covered by a gray sack. Beside it was another silhouette, though this one was free and instead bowed respectfully to his commander.

Danzo felt no small bit of pride when he set eyes on the unnervingly quiet and still ROOT operative. These were real ninja, not the clowns who paraded for Sarutobi, squawking nonsense about understanding their enemies and upholding some sort of silly 'ninja code'.

THESE were soldiers. The only code they needed was to unquestionably follow their master's orders. Shinobi were meant to live in the shadows, the night-wraiths of this world. A true shinobi was meant to inspire fear not comfort. They struck and vanished into darkness, and this was their whole purpose, their whole reason for existence.

'Sarutobi has been too lenient, as were Hashirama and Tobirama.'

Yes, sometimes Danzo wondered if things would have been better had Uchiha Madara ascended to Shodai hokage and not the leader of the Senju Clan of the Forest. Crazy and power hungry the man might have been, but he knew what really made a village strong. Such thoughts were irrelevant now though. Madara was dead and that would not change any time soon. If he must, Shimura Danzo would be the one to lead Konoha into the golden age that should have been.

Danzo nodded curtly at the bowing man, who proceeded to tear the bag off the prisoner's head.

The silver-haired youth gasped for air as soon as the sack was off. His head darted wildly around, the moment of compliance vanished as a window of opportunity for escape presented itself. Desperate eyes took in as much of the cavern as they could if the man should need to run away at a moment's notice.

A touch on a pressure point on the prisoner's neck from the operative was enough to slow his heart and forcefully calm him down, as well as render most of his limb muscles useless for next few hours. The person looked up into Danzo's cold unrelenting gaze.

"W-where…?"

"Where you are is not important. I have a business proposition for you, or should I say, your master."

The person quivered under the war-hawk's lone eye, "I d-don't know what you're talking about. Y-you have the wrong g-guy!"

Danzo's eye narrowed, "I know exactly who you are and the one you truly serve. Do not take me for a fool… Mizuki."

xxx

"Nii-san!"

"Sorry otouto." Itachi used his first two fingers to affectionately poke on his younger brother's forehead. "Perhaps another time."

Sasuke pouted and rubbed the red mark growing on his skin. "But you always say that! You won't even let me show you the jutsu I learned!"

Itachi looked at his brother's downcast face and felt a tug on his chest. Could he do it, could he erase his family from existence and not look back on it as a mistake?

The ANBU captain felt like crying his tears to the world but held fast. He needed to be strong for Sasuke.

"Sasuke," he called, breaking the boy out of his funk. "I still have a few minutes to report to work. Come, show me that jutsu."

The pure elation and joy on the kid's face from not being neglected anymore was all worth it and steeled Itachi's resolve to do whatever it took to preserve that look.

He still had about three months to strike, when all the Uchiha would be gathered in one spot to make their stand. He would make the most out of it until that time came.

xxx

_Five days later_…

Naruto was taking stock of his equipment in his apartment and still debating on whether he should go back to that section of forest to retrieve what he lost, but in the end he decided against it like he always did.

Being so close to death… It still haunted him at night, seeing the mad look in Shisui's eyes as he raised his sword to cleave his head open. The worst thing about it was that there was nothing he could do. No last minute escape, no trick up his sleeve to sink into the ground; nothing!

It also taught him a very important lesson; expect to be defeated when you run stupidly into a fight. He'd had the chance to run, but he cast it aside in favor of landing a scratch on his opponent.

_But, Ojisan, you're saying it like it doesn't matter if you get hit, as long as you can beat the other guy?_

Naruto snorted at his own words. He never really got his initial question answered before the Sandaime sent him off to bed, but now he knew. From his own first-hand experience, he now knew the right time to strike and the right time to run.

Funny, Hideki-sensei always did say that on the field one would learn more than they ever could in class. At the time he had no idea what that could even mean, yet it made perfect sense now.

It still didn't answer the big question hanging about ever since the encounter. Why did the Uchiha want him dead?

A/N: **Thanks for those reviews (makes me feel loved by fans). Yeah, Naruto's going to get a teacher at some point, but until then, wait and see. I'm not going to make him an overglorified Sasuke-type with senseis and girls throwing themselves at him while he whoops everyone's asses (but he WILL still whoop almost everyone's asses). I tried to write something outside of training and fighting for this chapter and, to be honest, Naruto wasn't even supposed to make an appearance. I swear, he just popped outa nowhere! Please send me your thoughts and I will reward you all with gifts of deliciousness (in the mental sense).**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five: Truth or Assumption?**

"Good morning, Nigai!"

"Sodo, you old bastard! After avoiding me for nearly six years, now you decide to visit?"

"Maa, relax you coot. I've been sending the wife over, haven't I?"

"As amazing as she is, I didn't serve in the war with your wife. We're the old guys now, so we should be lazing around together, telling our little devils stories of how we rescued princesses and defeated entire armies single-handedly!"

The two retired jounin shared a hearty laugh in the small, yet warm pharmacy in Konoha's Industrial District. They had been teammates since their gennin days, back when the Second Great Shinobi War was in full swing. Many of their peers failed to make it, but the two defied all odds with their near-legendary teamwork, a trait they passed on to their individual protégés, now chuunin, Kamizuki Izumo and Hagane Kotetsu.

"Speaking of devils…"

Nigai turned serious, already knowing which way the conversation was going. Sodo knew better than to bring up THAT issue with him unless it was something serious. "What of it?"

Sodo shifted to find a more comfortable position on the hardwood chair Nigai always kept in front of his counter for the more elderly customers he got; Kami bless the man for being considerate of weary bones and arthritis. In actuality though, Sodo was doing a quick sweep around the room and even outside the door to make sure no one was privy to their 'talk'.

A veteran himself and well versed in the old tactics, Nigai did his own check and, with an almost unnoticed gesture, indicated for his friend that it was safe to speak.

"I don't know what the demon's playing at, but it's finally showing its true colors-"

Nigai's eyebrow rose. "What are you talking about?"

"You haven't checked in with the rumor mill lately, have you?"

The herbalist shook his head, no. He had been too busy with the pharmacy, what with supplying the towns around Konoha and, to an extent, the edges of Fire Country with various medicines and drugs. These days the rumor mill was run by those men and women whose children were attending the academy, but his own were lost in the Kyuubi attack eight years ago, hence his lack of recent contact with them.

"So what has it done this time?" 'Hopefully, nothing too big.'

Sodo leaned in conspiratorially, "About a year ago, there was nothing to worry about. But there's been talk lately that the kid was involved in the murder of Uchiha Shisui! Its strength is growing far too fast to be normal!"

"It's never been normal, Sodo." Nigai pointed out, shocked to hear of Shisui's demise and who was thought responsible.

His friend just nodded sadly, "That's why I'm worried. My little girl is at the academy with it! What if it goes on a rampage, or regains the power stripped from it? What if Yondaime-sama's seal breaks when it's in the same room as my daughter? I-I can't let that happen, Nigai! I'll do whatever I have to to stop it from coming back!"

Nigai was saddened by the near-mad look in Sodo's eyes, as well as the man's shaking hands. He too remembered all too well the killing intent and malicious chakra that hung in the air on that night, and he could relate to its effects on the other man.

Out of the corner of his eye, Nigai thought he saw a shadow flit across the rafters of his shop, making him lose focus of the conversation.

'ANBU? They seem to be everywhere these days… For our sake I really hope it isn't-'

If Naruto had bothered to stay a moment longer, he would have found out the true purpose of Sodo coming to visit his old friend.

"Nigai, I have a favor to ask. Do you still have those old connections stationed in Iwa?"

xxx

Naruto was silent as he roof-hopped further away from the simple pharmacy he had just left after listening in on two old geezers' conversation.

Of late, rumors had been spreading of the demon 'rearing its head' or some other such nonsense. 'Yondaime-sama's seal… What the heck does that even mean?'

It sickened him to the core, knowing they were talking about him and not someone else. He didn't really know what he had been expecting when he started excelling in his schoolwork; praise, recognition, heck, even admiration! No, he certainly wasn't expecting more glares, hatred and what might pass for fear.

'Especially since that incident with those Uchiha, two weeks ago…'

_Speak of this to anyone, and I will kill you._

He'd done exactly that, so how was he supposed to know it would get out to the public anyway? Uchiha Shisui hadn't even been dead when he left, Itachi was still there with him!

Naruto nearly fell off the edge of a roof when he realized just what had happened.

'Shit! How could I be so stupid!' He thought to himself as he grated his teeth together. He knew he should have gone back the first chance he got, his finger-prints were practically all over the area! Uchiha Itachi must have framed him after killing Shisui! Why else would he have just shown up like that? Why else would he have let him go but threatened him not to reveal the situation to anyone?

It was a set-up right from the start. He still remembered Shisui's voice yelling as he ran away from the scene, as well as the almost painful shout that followed.

_Itachi, you would betray the clan?_

Was this the level of intelligence of an ANBU captain? He must have set the whole thing up from the beginning. Hide and watch as Naruto and Shisui leave battle scars all over the forest, then swoop in, surprise Shisui and land the killing blow! Afterwards he could saunter away with nothing connecting him to the murder, and let the blame be pinned on he-who-everyone-loves-to-hate!

Naruto wondered why the stubborn cloud of idiocy refused to lift itself from his brain. Even after a year of work, he still couldn't see that far past his nose.

Why did everyone pick on him? Why was he the target? What did he do to deserve this?

'But, shouldn't they have arrested me by now?'

Naruto shook his head. No, intense investigations needed to be carried out first before any suspect could be apprehended unless they were caught at the scene of the crime. It was in Konoha's laws, and must be the reason why everyone he heard talking only had rumors to fly on.

In that case…

Naruto spun on the ball of his foot and sped back to his apartment. He needed to destroy the still-bloody shirt and pants lying in his closet before anyone came looking.

Thank Kami he caught on in time!

xxx

Fugaku was feeling mostly confident that the operation would go on without a hitch. Just a few more months and they would have all the best battle specialists, healers and tacticians from among the Uchiha assembled to carry out the first stage of the plan.

If only he wasn't so unsettled by that infuriating jinchuuriki!

The clan head bit down on his lower lip to let out his frustration like his father had taught him to do in preparation for dealing with the stress of the position. He had nothing to worry about, right? Itachi was the most talented shinobi their clan had produced, moreso than Shisui, and he had warning this time. By all counts, it was foolproof!

So why was he getting this gut feeling that something just wasn't right about all this? Itachi was set to take out the vessel of the Kyuubi…

There it was again, a light flutter in the pit of his stomach.

Fugaku was a man who prided himself on his instincts which had saved him more than a few times on the battlefield. If the feeling told him something was wrong…

"Husband,"

Fugaku looked up to see his wife, Mikoto, standing in the doorway to his study.

"Your lunch is ready; you should come eat now when it's warm."

The man nodded back to the beautiful, black-haired woman and stood, stretching slightly from his meditative sitting posture.

Perhaps he could make it such that the Kyuubi boy would be guaranteed to die before Itachi had to face him?

Fugaku informed his wife that he would just be a few more minutes and sat back down, grabbing his pen and a clean sheet of paper as he prepared the words to write in his mind.

'Report of Special Extended Investigation Conducted for the Death of Uchiha Shisui by the Konoha Uchiha Police Force. Suspect List Based off of Evidence Collected at the Crime Scene; One: Uzumaki…'

xxx

_That evening…_

Itachi was at an abandoned house, the owner long dead since the rampage of the Kyuubi, wondering why he had even bothered to follow the instructions left to him on a slip of paper on his pillow back in his room at the Uchiha compound.

Suspiciously, whoever wrote it said to come at night and alone. As paranoid as he was, Itachi had made sure to be there hours earlier for a recon and when he arrived at the mentioned time he was fully equipped for a long battle.

Walking around, he took note of all the wooden spirit-statues that littered the actual inside of the house. In the pale moonlight, they looked eerily alive…

"So, you came."

Itachi whipped his head fast to the side. Just about a meter away from him at arm's reach was a person, a man by the sound of his deep voice, sitting leisurely on one of the bigger carvings beside a window, his back leaning against the wall behind him.

The ANBU jumped back slightly, startled. How had he not noticed this guy? The way he was just sitting there… He must have already been there for a while, waiting for him.

"Who are you?" Itachi asked, keeping his guard up the whole time.

The man sat up from his slight slouch on the wall and his upper body broke into the path of the moonlight, allowing Itachi to see his waist-length, spiky black hair and the orange mask with black tiger stripes covering his face. The single hole where the right eye should be in the mask somehow hid his actual eye in shadow no matter which angle Itachi tried to look at it from. The rest of the man's body was covered by a loose, black, high collared cloak.

"Hmm…" the figure fingered the mask over his chin, apparently thinking about something. "You should have sensed me two seconds before you did. Don't tell me they've been exaggerating your name, Itachi?"

"Why did you call me here?" Itachi moved his hand closer to the holster wrapped on his thigh. Whoever this guy was, he couldn't tell if he was an enemy or not. It was best not to lower his guard in any case.

The man seemed to ignore him, stepping off the statue he was using as a perch and turning to stare at the full moon outside the nearby window, not minding the way the wind ruffled his hair and cloak.

"You're wasting away here, Itachi."

The referred teen didn't bother reply to that. Mind games did not work on him.

"How long do you have until you face against the Uchiha?"

Itachi grabbed the hilt of his short-sword and drew it blindingly fast, taking a solid stance and activating his sharingan. The masked man wasn't the least bit intimidated and only turned to look at him, like he was looking at a kid playing with a stick. Itachi couldn't seem to draw his eyes away from that empty hole in the mask.

"How-long-do-you-have?" the words were said slowly this time, as if speaking to a child.

Itachi felt compelled to answer, even though there was every possibility the man was a spy.

"About three months…" He felt his mouth working on its own. Itachi suddenly gasped after replying, panting like he was catching his breath after running a marathon. What was happening to him?

"I see... I can tell you here and now that you will die when that time comes."

Itachi cleared his throat after wheezing for a moment. "You sound so sure about it-"

"Because I am."

"…"

"And you don't want to kill your family." The mask lowered to level a gaze at him. "You don't want to kill your brother."

"I will do as I must for Konoha."

His conviction told Itachi that there was no point in lying to him. The guy knew everything without the need for confirmation and, if his chakra was anything to go by, he was insanely powerful. Far more than the Sandaime…

The man returned to staring at the moon almost fondly. "And if I told you there was another way?"

A way for what? To save Sasuke? To save the whole clan?

Itachi was willing to hear out any option there was for either at this point.

"What are you talking about?"

"If you let me, I will train you to your full potential. Those paltry things you call genjutsu can become your greatest weapon, capable of creating whole other worlds in the mind's eye and completely fooling even the sharingan, under my instruction of course."

"What of my clan? How will this save them if it only gives me the power to fight them?"

The man's movements were so meticulously controlled that Itachi could tell he was the superior ninja in every way. There was no use in fighting here. Only words and diplomacy could save him if this man wanted to kill him.

"You cannot save them. They have already sealed their fate through their actions. The Uchiha are poisoned to the core by their very nature, and bad plants must be torn out by the roots; a hack-job would only make things worse."

Itachi's shoulders sagged slightly. It was true then, that was all there was to it?

"But-"

Itachi perked up slightly.

"-your brother can be saved. You do not have to kill him."

"But I might as well," Itachi's voice took on a sad tone. "I could not leave him alone like that."

"If not one Uchiha but their murderer remains-"

The word made Itachi flinch unconsciously.

"-then how can their name be restored?"

'Restore the name…?'

Itachi was catching on slowly. "Sasuke… can live to redeem the clan?"

The masked man only nodded.

The gears were turning at great speed in Itachi's mind. If living as a traitor to his village so that Sasuke could one day kill him to be hailed a hero was the only way he could spare his otouto, then he would of course do it gladly.

But it was still too easy.

"And what do you get out of this? Such a proposition must have a price to it."

"When Konoha recognizes you as a rogue ninja, you will join an organization called Akatsuki and continue there under my tutelage."

Itachi thought it over for a moment. This person obviously wanted all the Uchiha dead except Sasuke, and the solution that presented itself was not unreasonable… But what was this organization, Akatsuki? What purpose did they serve, and how would it affect things in his home village?

But a risk was always needed to gain something substantial; his life was forfeit either way, in any case. If he did murder everyone in his family, he would not leave the job unfinished. The last Uchiha would rather die by his own blade than any other.

"I'll do it."

The masked man nodded. "Good. And you cannot mention a word of this to anyone."

"..-"

"Not-one-person."

Subdued, Itachi couldn't even find it in himself to protest.

"I am your master now. I… Uchiha Madara."

Like a veil was suddenly lifted from his eye-hole, Itachi was shocked to see the red glow and three tomoe appear in the socket surrounded by wrinkled skin.

'Sharingan! Uchiha M-Madara?' That was completely unexpected. In shock, his own sharingan subconsciously shifted.

"We begin by teaching you how to properly use that new eye you have, the Mangekyou Sharingan."

For the first time since arriving at the place, Itachi wondered if he was in over his head.

xxx

_A week later…_

Naruto meticulously reviewed every aspect of the fight with Shisui, or as much of it as he remembered. He didn't dare return to the place itself; if anyone spotted him there, hell would be sure to rise.

The blond sighed when nothing he hadn't already thought of before came up. He rose from his bed, throwing off the covers and unclasping his left hand from the hilt of the kunai under his pillow that he firmly held through each night. He half expected ANBU to burst through the front door in the dead of the night to slap chakra-restraining hand-cuffs on him, ignoring his kicking and screaming as they dragged him away to be judged in front of a whole room of glaring villagers…

Naruto slapped his face with a palm, rubbing it over his eyes as he sighed. The nightmares kept him awake through most of the night; forcing him to turn to the only activity he found peace in in hopes of driving away the insomnia through fatigue:

Reading.

Naruto yawned loudly and shuffled his way to the bathroom rubbing his bare sides and lamenting the fact that he slept (or tried to) bare-chested. He took a look in the mirror above the sink and almost immediately regretted it. Staring back at him was a monster with neck-length, spiky, drooped, yellow hair; its bloodshot, blue eyes rimmed with a puffy angry red almost seemed as ready to chew him up as the long fangs that were its canines. The horizontal, curved marks on its cheeks gave it a feral appearance, not unlike a mad dog, or cat.

'Is this what the villagers see when they look at me?' No wonder they called him 'demon' then.

The hair and bloodshot eyes he could explain off as the effects of lack of regular sleep. The red eye-bags though…

He touched them, surprised he could feel no pain. Whatever process that normally caused them to turn black like he'd read about must have been interfered with by his healing ability. Something to do with the capillaries, but he couldn't really remember.

Interested in experimenting, Naruto molded a bit of chakra with a handseal, looking into the mirror to note what the effect would be if he used the energy to stimulate the blood flow…

His lower jaw unhinged instead when an elaborate looking design appeared on his stomach the moment he began to pull on his chakra stores.

'W-What was that!' the blond asked in his mind, not really getting an answer. When he let go of the chakra, the eight-horned array spreading outwards from a black spiral shimmered out of view like it had never been there in the first place.

Naruto didn't know much about the subject, but he could recognize a piece of Fuinjutsu when he saw one.

_What if Yondaime-sama's seal breaks when it's in the same room as my daughter?_

A seal on his body, placed by the Yondaime? How, what, where, when…? Questions spun circles in Naruto's head, giving him a headache.

In his growing confusion, he failed to sense black dust pouring off his windowsill and out the open window, floating away into the sky.

Just to make sure he wasn't hallucinating from his extended reading hours, Naruto formed the ram seal once more and tried molding chakra for a henge no jutsu.

Again, the same black writing appeared. He was most certainly not dreaming this up. But what purpose would a hidden seal like that have? It didn't look like any storage seal, or even like the ones on exploding tags…

Naruto gasped in fear. What if it was a control seal of some kind? Could this be why everyone was so dead-set on seeing him burn in hell, even trying to send him there early?

And the old man, Sodo, was afraid it was breaking.

Naruto shuddered at the thought of what an unstable, unknown, seal on his person could do to him if left unchecked. This would have to take first priority over everything else while he figured it out.

'And what does the seal have to do with me being a 'demon that could go on a rampage'?'

xxx

Hiruzen wanted to murder someone right now. Too bad everyone in the immediate vicinity had fled the moment he began leaking potent killer intent.

And all because of an innocent-looking folder lying open on his desk; the conclusion of the extended investigation of Uchiha Shisui's demise. The evidence was not falsified in any way and even included a detailed description of residues of extreme concentrations of chakra in the area of investigation by one of his, the Sandaime's, most trusted sensor-nin.

The suspected murderer of Uchiha Shisui was now, officially, Uzumaki Naruto.

When the Uchiha had seemingly ignored the issue, Hiruzen had turned a blind eye himself, preoccupied with dealing with the coming revolt. It was now coming back to bite him in the arse, so to speak.

The worst thing was that with all this evidence, he himself couldn't say without a doubt that Naruto wasn't responsible, or at the very least, uninvolved in the homicide.

Village security was taken very seriously in Konoha. Up until now, the ninja had been lenient with young Naruto, choosing to be impartial until they could judge the boy themselves. When this situation would come to light (and it would, if it already hadn't) Hiruzen knew he might very well be the only supporter Naruto had in Konoha. In the end, he would either be required to do his duty as Sandaime, and incarcerate or-heaven forbid-order Naruto's execution, or simply step down from the post and allow the Council and Fire Daimyo to choose a new hokage.

The entire plot stank heavily of Danzo. It would be just like the man to force him into a corner like this, making him choose between the village and the boy he loved like a grandson. It wasn't like Hiruzen could impart his will over everything else either. Konoha did not function by martial law. The hokage's word was not absolute.

For once, Iwa and Kiri's policies didn't seem so far-fetched.

Nevertheless, Hiruzen needed to get to the bottom of this. But there was hardly any time to do so! The note that came with the report said that a copy was sent to all the elders and members of the council to call for a formal hearing within two days. Not even his swiftest ANBU could gather enough information to neutralize the situation in time for the hearing. Even if there were a hundred of him at work, it would be too little, too late.

In a rare loss of composure, the Sandaime struck hard on his desk, breaking the whole structure in half with a loud SNAP and sending thick splinters to embed in the walls, one coincidentally piercing through the Yondaime's picture which was hung alongside those of the other previous hokage.

As his ANBU guard rushed into the room to discern the cause of the loud noise, the Sandaime looked on horrified at the impaled image of Namikaze Minato.

'Right in his heart... What have I done, Minato?'

xxx

"Are you sure of what you saw?"

"Affirmative, Danzo-sama. My Jinton (Dust release) jutsu functions on a scale more accurate than the Byakugan, mapping images-"

"Be silent!" the old war-hawk barked at the bowing operative before he could run his mouth off again. 117 had not been fully conditioned, always breaking into his habit of giving long-winded descriptions of things where unneeded. Danzo's medics were fairly convinced it might be a genetic trait since after more than five years of full conditioning-training the man was unable to drop it. At least his sibling, 218, was easier to work with. If not for his unusual skill with the Dust Arts, Danzo would already have scrubbed off 117. He still could, though, if the man kept up his prattle…

But the information relayed was… interesting to say the least.

'So, the jinchuuriki is aware of the Kyuubi and can already draw from the seal?'

So much for Sarutobi's attempt to hide the truth. It might also explain why he received a copy of the official investigation into Uchiha Shisui's death. The boy was indeed behind the murder then, nothing short of an S-ranked ninja could stand up to the might of the Kyuubi's power directed under human will.

Going through the actual report though, Danzo was partly shocked. There was only evidence of concentrated _normal_ chakra levels yet to dissipate from the area, and it was recorded by Hiruzen's most trusted sensor. The implications of that were… quite unsettling.

'The Kyuubi boy defeated Shisui with his own power?' Unsettling indeed. Danzo was aware of how easily the boy was taking apart those other children at the academy in every skill prowess could be attained. He half believed the kid could do the same to his own rookie recruits, and was tempted more than once to extend to him an invitation to ROOT, but the option was unexplorable. Hiruzen had his teeth set too far into Uzumaki. The two shared a bond that a few promises of power or purpose would not break.

Uzumaki Naruto, with his confirmed powers, was officially a threat to Konoha now. If the report before him was any indication, Hiruzen was unable to hold the leash and control his own pet-project. It was time the true protectors of Konoha took matters into their own hands.

Danzo exited the underground base and set off to find someone he knew could contact an artisan who would dispose of the jinchuuriki with the utmost discretion.

xxx

Jinchuuriki…

Such a simple word… well, not really.

The first dot Naruto had was his almost animalistic traits; long canines and whisker marks, all the more highlighted now with the red marks around his eyes which didn't look like they would be fading at all, if ever.

The second dot he connected to the first was his remarkable healing rate, something he used to take for granted every day, until he saw those he beat black and blue at the academy returning the next day in the same condition when he himself would have been fresh and ready to go.

The third dot was fairly easy to find once that damnable cloud of idiocy let up for a moment; his uncanny resemblance to the Fourth Hokage.

The fourth clue was the mysterious disappearance of Kyuubi, the only known demon/bijuu to have come close to Konoha since Senju Hashirama divided them among the elemental nations.

The fifth and final clue was actually from a fairytail-ish story Naruto had once read, talking of a demon sealed into a kid to turn him into a weapon.

How ironic that he had described the writer as 'untalented, uncreative, and unbelievably fictional'.

"I'm a jinchuuriki…" Naruto said it to himself, as if not believing it until it was spoken into finality.

'Huh, leave it to the Yondaime, greatest shinobi of all time, to turn a crappy plot from a novel into a reality.'

Finding out the truth about the seal was so easy it was almost laughable. So was the unspoken law in Konoha that it was forbidden to reveal the identity of Kyuubi's jinchuuriki to one without prior knowledge. It certainly didn't stop them from talking about it among themselves though.

Naruto knew he wasn't Kyuubi. He felt no rage, no bloodlust, no need to rend destruction everywhere he passed like it was written in all the descriptions. Why couldn't the villagers see that though?

'Because Kyuubi killed their loved ones.' came the answer. The villagers still grieved, and the reason for their despair just so conveniently happened to be there in a cage for them to take their frustrations out on.

Naruto's eyes narrowed as he growled. That wasn't any excuse to take it out on a kid who had no idea why they all hated him in the first place!

'And Ojisan…'

As his anger grew, Naruto could feel something stir from deep within him.

The old man, Sandaime. All those times they ate together at Ichiraku's.

Blue eyes flashed red.

All those times he tucked him in at night.

Fingernails grew into wicked claws.

All those times he went with him to buy clothes when the street-gangs beat him up and tore his to bits.

Whisker marks deepened, lines growing bold and thick. Crimson eye-lines glowed ominously.

A-and he never even thought to tell him it wasn't his fault he was treated like he was.

A single, glistening tear fell from his closed eye. The effects brought about by the manifestation of the Kyuubi's chakra receded as Naruto sobbed silently, his broken resolve and jumbled feelings forcing back the tainted red chakra.

He didn't hate Ojisan. How could he when the old man was the only one there for him all these years? Even if it was fake, in the end it still happened.

But the village… That was another story altogether. He could never forgive them for taking out their anguish on him.

Naruto wiped off the tears from his face with the back of his hand and, as it fell to his side, he felt it brush on a cloth.

The boy looked down, seeing the black band he usually used to tie his hands or legs together to practice moving fluidly in strenuous positions. Picking it up, he sniffed and, on a whim, lifted it up to his forehead, slowly tying the ends back to make a headband that kept his long hair from falling back into his eyes.

Naruto thought over his new look. He had always wanted to be a ninja, but now he didn't even want to think of serving those _people_.

It was most fitting that his headband had no forehead protector. It signified a shinobi who was unwanted.

A shinobi with no village, a most fitting symbol indeed.

Outside Naruto's window, a thoroughly broken man dashed away into the night after having confronted, and confirmed, his fears.

xxx

A/N:** Will Naruto abandon the village? Will he hunt down the bastard, Itachi? You wanna know, huh? WELL SO DO I!**

**Long chapter, eh? At least I hit 20k+ words! Now my story can become famous, yaaaay!**

**Meeeh, jOhnni, Naruto was put into the advance class because it was the only one with a vacant spot. At the time, it was already ongoing, so he missed when they gave out just enough books at the start of the year, and there was no way Hideki and the whole class was gonna start all over again just for him. There was also no reason to find him a set of books 'cos when his age-mates finally came into the academy he would just have to start all over again with them and eventually get the damn things. He feels like the victim so he says, "They won't teach me worth jack!" I'll elaborate more, hopefully in the next chapter with a few emotional flashbacks, so that was just a heads-up.**

**I'm of the same opinion as you though. Canon Naruto wasn't a quick learner and just got bored, slacked off and focused on getting attention. Still, how could he keep saying he wanted to become hokage but never wanted to do any actual work towards it? Hell, Sasuke has been portrayed as a better main character than Naruto is; the only mark on his record (other than running away to Orochimaru to avenge his family with no intention of handing his body over, VERY NOBLE KISHI, JUST GIVE HIM THE MAIN TITLE AND BE DONE WITH IT!) was that he nearly killed Naruto, who healed right back up by the way and will never hold a grudge for that, so a moot point it is.**

**Does anyone else feel that Naruto's coming fight with Itachi and Nagato is a reenactment of how the younger son of the Rikudou Sennin inherited his dreams and the older, bitter brother wanted to kick the little shit's ass for it? No? Sounds like a ritual to me but of course I could be wrong.**

**I love your reviews! They give me vitality and strength! Ten thousand more and I can take over Konoha, and eventually, the world! MUAHAHAAHAAAHAAAHAA!**


	6. Chapter 6

A/N:** First off… I'M SO SORRY! I accidentally left out something VERY important at the end of the last chapter in my rush to update and also included something that wasn't supposed to happen yet in the story, so I had to go back and edit it, but I also cleared up a spelling error as well. Check it out, PLEEEAAAASE? It's required for this story to sail smoothly. Otherwise, you can enjoy this next installment! (PS, If you start complaining my story's all mixed up, I'll know you haven't done as I asked, so stop reading this first and do exactly that!)**

**Chapter Six: Trial by-**

Walking along the streets of Konoha for what would be his two hundred and seventy-eighth time, Kabuto was noticeably shocked to hear of the soon-to-be hearing to condemn the murderer of Uchiha Shisui, with the number one and sole suspect being none other than Uzumaki Naruto!

Apparently, sometime last night a drunk council member babbled about it to his maid, who in turn told the cook, who told the bread-delivery man in the morning, who ran back and informed his boss, who told his wife just before she went out to the onsen and… Well, you get the picture.

'How interesting…' thought the silver haired gennin as he did his best to catch the floating whispers from among the gossiping shopkeepers.

So the boy went and took his advice that well after all, did he? Taking down Shunshin no Shisui was no joke, and if young Naruto could pull that off…

Kabuto had done his long-postponed research on Naruto as soon as he first heard the rumors that he was involved in something to do with the demise of a big name from the Uchiha clan. What he found out shocked him nearly as much as the control-seal did, back when he giggled at Sasori's oversized rump that one time they met when he was still very much a kid.

Konoha had its very own jinchuuriki! And of the Kyuubi no less!

A revolutionary medical find in his eyes, who knew what kind of amazing power the boy held? He'd never seen a jinchuuriki before, much less examined one, only coming across the description while studying to perfect a regeneration technique he was working on that would one day undoubtedly win him favor with Orochimaru, and bring him closer to completing his mission for Sasori.

It made sense now, why Naruto was so shrouded in mystery. Kabuto could see where the rapid healing stemmed from, and how the blond could have actually beaten Shisui; he must have used the powers granted to him by Kyuubi! Kabuto had no idea what those could be, but they must have been something incredible all the same if it was even a fraction of what the Nine-Tails was said to be capable of.

Oh, how he would want nothing better than to strap the little blond to his table and explore away! (**Sick pedophiles…**) Too bad he apparently couldn't, and would never be able to match blows with the kid if he had taken out Shunshin no Shisui by himself.

If only he could have taken even just a few millimeters of blood back when they'd first met…

'Hmm…?' That might not be impossible now though. After all, weren't people usually unsettled right before a big trial? A kind gesture of an extended hand of sympathy was often the best disguise for a flesh-tearing probe.

Perhaps it was time he paid young Naruto another visit, just to verify the new threat level if nothing else?

Kabuto smirked to himself and pushed his glasses up his nose. 'Heh, who would have thought I would take more than a passing interest in you, Naruto-kun?'

The teen's thoughts were interrupted as a garbled scream smothered the sounds of everything else in the area.

"AAAAAARGHHH! IT'S FREE! IT'S FREE! KAMI, HELP US! WE'RE DOOOOOOOOMED!"

Kabuto only shook his head as the old woman's granddaughter forcefully dragged her out of the market before she could make a scene and stain her pride further.

'Is it just me or do strange things keep happening in the Market District? I should have checked out the place before I bought the apartment near here, I knew there was a catch to that special sale offer!'

It was almost funny, seeing the villagers in panic because of their confirmed fears manifesting themselves at last. Those superstitious fools, if the jinchuuriki really wanted them dead it would have happened a long time ago. They were putting up all this fuss for nothing… Were those pitchforks at the hardware store going half price, or was it just his imagination?

"…"

Kabuto now knew he REALLY needed to go check up with the Uzumaki for those little tidbits of information (and maybe an organ, a kidney if possible, but that might be hoping for too much) before the whole village banded together to string their resident demon-host up, but first he had to meet up with this man who was trying to contact any of Orochimaru's spies in the village. He might give him a veritable excuse to enter the snake man's presence once more and try to prove his worth again.

'Let's see… Mizuki was it?'

xxx

Hiruzen was trying very hard not to glare at Danzo as he took his seat in the office at the Hokage Tower. The activity itself seemed to have sapped away his energy because he slightly slumped into the chair the moment he made contact with it. Why did that irritating man have to request a meeting now, just as he was looking into a last minute way to try and help Naruto?

Danzo, for one though, was happy to finally see through the small cracks of Sandaime's unbreakable façade and witness a sliver of the true self that lay hidden underneath.

'You've always been so predictable, Hiruzen. When the people you care about are in danger, you throw away all sense and make grave mistakes that come to harm everyone, even those not associated with you.' thought the war hawk. To him, it was the never-changing factor that would always make him better than his rival, and the reason HE deserved the seat of Sandaime Hokage. It was no use crying over spilt milk though, but he could still capitalize on that fact for his own ends like he was just about to now.

"Is this about THAT issue, Danzo?" Koharu wearily asked. She was getting tired of all this cloak and dagger business and just wanted it over and done with. Her body was way past its prime for ninja activities of any nature at this point.

The one-eyed man nodded serenely. Beside him, Homura gasped, "There hasn't been another development so soon, has there?"

Danzo shook his head no. "I asked for this meeting to suggest that we strike at the Uchiha tonight."

Hiruzen was the first to speak out. "You can't be serious, Danzo! What about all our preparations? The time isn't right!"

'Only for you, you old fool.'

"It is the perfect time for this, what with the chaos in the village over Uzumaki's coming trial."

"How does that change anything, though?" asked Homura.

Danzo, in his usual nature, took a brief moment before answering. Sometimes building a little suspense helped put the point across. "The Uchiha must believe they are close to eliminating what they have identified as a threat to their plans. At such a time that victory is imminent for them, they will be likely to lower their guard."

It sounded like a good plan on its own, but Danzo knew he had to lay the icing on, so to speak, to truly have his rival's support over the motion.

"Also, we have already consented to the hearing so as not to arouse suspicion among them, have we not? I suppose a thing like the loss of a major clan to an inside traitor would divert attention from the matter, at least until things are settled. This way we do not have to deal with two pressing issues at once, which, I believe, is something we ALL wouldn't want."

Well it was mostly true. Jinchuuriki were a delicate subject as they were figurative warheads, not that many outside Konoha knew about the Kyuubi, and one standing trial for murder might cause a lot of headaches in the long run. Still, it got his point across to the one intended.

The Sandaime took notice of how much Danzo stressed that part about the village having diverted its attention, as well as the fact that the Uchiha were the ones pushing for Naruto's trial. He was already aware of how bad it would look if he tried to call off a legitimate case without due grounds for his argument. The justice system of Konoha would be called into question, and even the Daimyo might become involved. It was why he had been forced to agree to the trial in the first place.

But on the other hand, while everyone in the village would be grieving for their lost clan he may be able to buy himself (and Naruto) a few more days by delaying the hearing, hopefully long enough to find an answer! Even a week at most working overtime would be enough to finally get to the bottom of things!

'To think that Danzo, of all people, would present the solution to my dilemma…' But the man was always petitioning for Naruto to be turned into a weapon, maybe he felt it would be a great loss for the jinchuuriki to just die like that before Konoha could make use of him? In any case, it wouldn't be the first time he and the crippled man were on the same side for a common cause.

"I think the proposal has merit." Homura seconded the decision, before he could dwell further on it. "I would much rather we close up this issue as soon as we can. There is no point in dragging out a charade for too long if we might be discovered along the way."

"I agree." Hiruzen finalized it. The other two looked at him in curiousity. Since when did the Sandaime readily support any of Danzo's suggestions? Usually it took a whole council to outvote him in matters like this.

Put off by the awkward stares, Hiruzen came up with an excuse on the spot to satisfy his former teammates.

"I believe it would be best if young Itachi didn't have to dwell on his mission for too long, in his best interests of course." He coughed, almost nervously. The elders' presence was required at Naruto's trial and he didn't need for anyone to be claiming how biased the hokage was. The situation could easily turn worse in such a case.

Koharu nodded understandingly, her grandmotherly instincts allowing her to somewhat comprehend the young ANBU's plight. Homura simply accepted the reason without question while Danzo almost looked like he would burst into a jig at seeing the Professor narrowly dodge the bullet.

'They bought it!' Hiruzen sighed, relieved in his mind. "I'll send for Itachi right away then, if Koharu has no objections to it."

The old woman stated that she held no reservations on the matter. When the Sandaime went to secretly relay the message for a summons, he missed seeing the triumphant twinkle in Danzo's eye when his back was turned.

'Right into my hands, Hiruzen. Predictable as always when it comes to useless emotions.'

xxx

Naruto sat legs-crossed on the tree branch, sheltered from the afternoon sun by overhanging leaves as he focused his chakra, trying to achieve a specific effect with it.

Recently, he had taken to avoiding the village completely, and spent all his time in the forest knowing how he would be taken if anyone were to see the damn marks on his eyes that refused to go away. This would mean that he had to survive off the land (and the vast stashes of cup-ramen he squirreled away in his cupboards) for the next few days, as well as skip school (not that anyone cared about that nowadays) maybe until someone actually came looking for him.

But the good thing with all this was that it let him to catch up on practicing his techniques and, hopefully, he would get the concept behind this new one down before he even achieved the overall level of chakra control needed for it.

Naruto flipped through the handseals that were almost second-nature to him, trying to get a feel for how the chakra was being manipulated as he did so.

"**Shinkiro no justu…**" he whispered, letting the chakra flow and twist, noting its form as it did so. He could still perform the jutsu with no handseals at a moment's call, but that would negate the very purpose of this experiment.

The Mirage Jutsu was one of the techniques that Naruto was extremely proud of, seeing as it was the result of nearly four month's constant work, and it had saved his skin once already. He got the idea from the explanation of how the normal bunshin worked; producing an after-image without needing to move at insane speeds to achieve it. What the Shinkiro did instead was bend ALL the light away from him, creating an image of himself elsewhere while the real him became completely invisible.

Which was just another way of saying that it was the completed form of bunshin no jutsu.

The best thing about it was that it wasn't genjutsu; so it couldn't be broken with a simple release of chakra. It also had a downside, though, because as soon as someone got near it the light around them would warp and they would 'bend' away, revealing the trick for what it was.

_Shisui's kunai passed right through Naruto and seemed to curve back on him. Seeing the makings of an illusion, he backed up in time to see the kid's image waver and disappear._

Other demerits were that he could only use it for a limited distance, and it didn't account for things like noise and shadow, but it was very useful as a lifelike distraction unlike any other. Other than that, the amount of chakra it took to pull off was never really an issue with him, but the first time he used it he'd needed a good bit of concentration to manipulate the space the light itself occupied, which lessened as he became more familiar with it.

Now, he was trying to manipulate the space that chakra occupied. It sounded completely plausible in his head, so why shouldn't he give it a shot? Of course, easier said than done, but repeatedly using the mirage might just reveal the real trick behind it, and he felt he was close…

"…That looks like a useful technique." His eyes snapped open quickly. Looking around in all directions, he finally spotted a familiar-looking purple sweater, the owner leaning against the base of the tree he was resting on.

"It might actually give me some trouble if you used it seriously against me."

"Glasses-san!" Damn, he STILL didn't feel the guy coming. Who was he anyway?

"Hello, Naruto."

The boy didn't answer, instead wondering about something.

"Hey, how could you tell I was using a technique?"

Kabuto tapped the side of his head and pointed up, close to the end of the branch Naruto was resting on. "If you were really sitting there it would be sagging from the extra weight."

'Oh, yeah, I've got to remember that.'

Naruto slid off the branch and let himself free-fall to the ground, landing gracefully.

"I see you're not as clumsy as before," Kabuto ignored Naruto's grumbling 'I wasn't that bad!' "I suppose you've really come along. Good for you!"

"Eh, it wasn't hard." The blond boasted, trying his best to look cool but only managing a creepy stare because of his eyes' extra coloring. Those ones Kabuto didn't even bother asking about. For all he knew it could be a jinchuuriki thing that only happened in certain seasons.

"So I can assume you're not worried?"

This grabbed Naruto's attention and visibly put him on guard. "Why should I be worried, Glasses-san?" 'PLEASE don't be another guy trying to kill me.' He prayed silently.

Irked by the nickname, 'Glasses-san' replied, "My name is Kabuto, Yakushi Kabuto." He narrowed his eyes as if saying 'You better remember it!'

His whole demeanor then abruptly turned into a cheerful one. "As for why you should be worried, it's not every day a gaki like you goes on trial for murder-"

Naruto jumped back suddenly, startling Kabuto as he whipped out a kunai faster than the eye could see and pointed it at him, quickly taking a solid taijutsu stance while molding chakra in his muscles.

"YOU PEOPLE JUST DON'T KNOW WHEN TO QUIT, DO YOU?"

'Huh?' Kabuto looked around the area warily, not having sensed anyone nearby. "Who are you talking to?"

Naruto was confused to see Kabuto confused. Wasn't he there to arrest him?

He asked as much, not taking it well when the older teen burst into laughter afterward.

"This isn't funny!" He tried growling at him. Kabuto stooped over as his laughter died out slowly, wheezing and rubbing his side like he'd pulled a muscle.

"So that's why you're all jumpy? You really don't know a thing about the trial, do you?"

"…There's a … trial?"

'Eh?' He was serious after all… "You're going to be tried tomorrow as the prime suspect in the murder of Uchiha Shisui. Didn't you get a notice or anything?"

Naruto shook his head, now worried about what this could all mean. The penalty for murder was execution…

No! What was he thinking, he didn't kill Shisui, that bastard Itachi did! …But there was nothing he could do about it now. If there was a time to reveal the truth, it had already passed, back when investigations were being carried out.

So what could he do now? Who could he turn to? Ojisan was obligated to be the prosecutor in the case; Naruto knew exactly how the system in Konoha worked when someone was charged with killing a prominent member of a major clan and the accused was not a part of that clan. Usually, they would just ask for his head and be done with it, but with his status as a jinchuuriki and a supposed asset of the village…

Naruto could only reach one logical conclusion about the whole affair if he wanted to keep his life by the end of it:

He would have to fight Konoha, and hopefully escape as a rogue citizen of high threat.

Yet the problem with that plan was that he lacked any kind of firepower to get far enough out of Fire Country's borders before he would be apprehended by ANBU Hunter-nin squads, and that was if no one was barring his way out. The whole thing looked even more hopeless now…

Well, not without using THAT, even if it was purely theoretical and might not even work, but he even he had to admit he was out of options. If the Kyuubi even gave him any sort of powers, the idea of tampering with the seal was highly unappealing to him.

But he would still need few more materials to even attempt the OTHER option though, and he had no idea how he could even get them. Looking at the ninja beside him though, an idea presented itself.

Kabuto watched the emotions play out on Naruto's face as the blond seemed to be working out a plan of some kind over what he needed to do. He had to hand it to the kid; word from the academy was that there was nothing there for him anymore, seeing as he had somehow mastered nearly everything they had to dish out at him. It was a frightening thought that all of that intelligence could be packed in the short, buff boy standing right in front of him.

Naruto exited his 'thinking phase' and surprised Kabuto completely when he bowed really low to him, exposing his back.

"Kabuto-san," Naruto said. "I know we don't know each other that well, and I appreciate you helping me before. Please… Help me again. I'll pay you as much as you want-"

"I don't need money," Kabuto waved him off, watching his expression turn to one of despair. "But I can help you for something else though."

Naruto straightened up quickly, "What?"

Kabuto smirked in a way that made Naruto's skin crawl, his glasses reflecting the afternoon light as he lowered his gaze.

"Why don't you first tell me what YOU want, and I'll know if I can help."

Naruto nodded to this as it made sense.

"I need ninja ink. Lots of it, if possible the kind used for sealing, and the largest width scrolls they have in the market, enough to cover a six-by-eight room's floor." He tried to shrug off the feeling that he was making a deal with the devil himself without much success. "And also, a sample of refined ore, about this big, for chakra conductive metal that's used to make weapons with." He indicated the size with his hands about an inch apart. "Just the ore though, not the metal itself." he clarified. Naruto figured that since Kabuto was a registered ninja (he wore a leaf headband, didn't he?) they wouldn't be too hard to come by for him. A quick trip to the ninja store they always kicked him out of was all that was needed.

Of course, Naruto could steal those things if he really needed to, but he didn't want to give the villagers a reason to send him to the gallows early if everything about the hearing was true.

'What would he want with those?' Kabuto thought to himself as he took a second to size up his chances of acquiring the items, taking all his resources into consideration at the same time. "Should I assume you need them before the trial?"

"By this evening if you can, otherwise they'll be of no use." The boy nervously swallowed, trying not to think of why it would be useless after that time.

The ore would undoubtedly be expensive, but thankfully not as much as the metal itself. He could also have the ink in a few minutes, half an hour really, but buying up too much, as well as the large scrolls Naruto described, could draw unnecessary attention to himself, and might even blow his cover.

'You drive a hard bargain, Naruto-kun, but what I want is more valuable than anything you could put a price on.'

"I think I can have them before seven tonight."

Naruto relaxed his tense muscles, the anticipation of waiting for Kabuto's answer having nearly drained him.

"Now, about what I want,"

'Damn!' His muscles were all bunched up again now.

"Yeah?" 'Why do I suddenly want to run away screaming 'FREAK!'?'

Kabuto smiled wickedly and from a pouch strapped to his lower back he withdrew a syringe and long needle, still in their sterile wrapping.

"It's nothing much, just a bit of your blood. Oh, don't be such a baby!" Why did everyone who saw his needles suddenly run away screaming that he was a freak?

Naruto peered cautiously around the tree he was hiding behind. "Why do you want my blood, and does the needle really have to be that long?"

Honestly, some ninja could charge straight through a Katon jutsu but quivered before less-than-a millimeter-thick steel.

Kabuto sighed as he unwrapped the two, "Look, do you want me to help you out or not?"

Naruto actually looked thoughtful for a moment, but in the end decided to go through with it. He couldn't just back down now, his life was at stake here!

"Let's do it then." He nodded and jumped out, presented his bare arm to the gennin.

"Excellent," Kabuto smirked and attached the needle to the syringe. It was long and had a wide syringe so that it could grab both the blood and surrounding tissue. "Don't move, it will only hurt more if you do."

Naruto whimpered slightly as the needle loomed closer…

xxx

"Ne, Kakashi?"

The laid-back jounin looked up from his little orange book at the ninja staring at him.

"Did you say something, Gai?"

Unlike the times before when he used this tactic, Maito Gai did not launch into a loud anguished scream of 'WHY MUST YOU BE SO HIP, KAKASHI!'

Indeed, the ritual was so commonplace that everyone in the jounin lounge at the hokage tower lost focus in whatever they were doing just to stare at the two, wondering what was up.

Kakashi was starting to sweat a bit from all the eyes directed at him.

"Uh, what do you want, Gai?" He tried his best not to look at the jounin. Whenever the green-clad man was serious, his huge eyebrows tended to come closer together, making for a VERY frightening image when you were as close as Kakashi was.

"My Great Rival, shouldn't you be worried about the coming trial?"

Kakashi turned back to his book, unwilling to take part in a painful conversation, but Gai would not let him off so easily. The sharingan warrior had been extremely upset the night before, when all those terrible rumors about Uzumaki were confirmed. His disappointment in the lad had been apparent to anyone who chanced to see him in his drunken stupor. Gai knew that unless he talked about it, the issue would eat into his closest friend until he released in an unhealthy fashion, like a three-week S-rank mission out of the country.

"Kakashi, he may have killed someone-"

"…"

"But the boy is still your sensei's legacy."

A small trickle of killer intent came from the man even as he let the book fall from his eyes.

"Gai, shut up."

The one spoken to quivered slightly, as did everyone else in the room who averted their gazes from the pair. How could anyone be that scary with only one eye?

Still, he did not let up. Kakashi could see his mouth making to open again and sought to put a lid on the subject once and for all.

"My sensei made a mistake in his choice. The boy is NOT his legacy."

Yes, it hurt Kakashi deep inside, how could it not? Uzumaki Naruto was the last thing the Yondaime had left his student, and every time Kakashi chanced to look at the orphan's face he would imagine he was looking into a reincarnation of his dead teacher, mentor, and in all but name, surrogate father.

All of that had been shattered last night though, when he saw the child's features twist into something not human under the influence of the Nine-Tail's chakra. The piece of Namikaze Minato left in Konoha was long gone, or perhaps it always had been.

Kakashi returned to his book, the only thing that had never failed him, and flipped the page. The jinchuuriki was going to be executed after his hearing, and there was nothing he could do, nor was willing to, about it.

xxx

Itachi was surprised to find his legs having carried him back to the abandoned house he was in just the previous night. He had been lost deep in thought the moment he left the Sandaime's office, having been informed of the change in his final mission for the village.

He'd thought he had time to prepare himself adequately, to seal his feelings away in an iron-hard casing around his heart. It seemed that karma was a bitch that took payment in advance though, and one rarely got what they wished for in life. Ever since the news had been broken to him, Itachi's thoughts had been a whirlwind of insecurity, doubt, regret, anger, pain… If he was still sane by the next morning he might very well commit seppuku, just to spare himself the madness.

"Why have you come, Itachi?"

The ANBU captain regarded his 'sensei' who had seemingly walked out of thin air to meet with him.

'How did he know I was here?' Itachi couldn't have known that his new master had a room set up in the building where he spent his time playing shogi with himself until he got bored, or something to do with his plans occurred that required his presence.

"Madara-sama," Itachi rubbed his tongue on the roof of his mouth. He still hadn't gotten used to referring to anyone other than the hokage with the honorific. "The time for the mission has been pushed up… to tonight."

Amazingly, the ancient man backed up slightly in genuine surprise. "What did you say?"

Wisely, Itachi did not answer the rhetorical question. He still kept an eye out for an escape route should he need it when Madara's gloved hands bunched into fists in fury.

What were those goats playing at? Did they not realize the consequences of moving forward plans that had been meticulously carved for years, decades even?

Of course not! None of them were Uchiha Madara, after all… He had expected to have a few months to train up Itachi to handle the situation by himself, but now that had changed. The only technique he had taught the boy was a surprisingly strong genjutsu variant, made possible only with the power of the mangekyou…

Madara's body became calm and pristine all at once. None of this changed his plans whatsoever. Not even that impending trial for Uzumaki Naruto.

"Have you still consented to do the mission?"

Itachi nodded yes. He had been so dazed he just went with the first thing that popped into his mind.

"Good, because I will be joining you tonight to help take out some of the stronger targets."

xxx

"B-but, are you sure, Danzo-sama?"

"Do not question me, Nigai. I want you to contact that nuke-nin with those instructions immediately after the trial. I don't care what it takes, you-will-find-him."

The retired jounin stifled a tremor under the relentless gaze of his former field commander. He'd been confronted in his pharmacy, and Danzo had gone on to reveal that he knew of his still active network spread all across the elemental nations. Nigai hadn't known he was being watched, but he supposed no one was ever really 'out', even when they went into retirement.

But that wasn't his current problem. How was he supposed to explain to Danzo that both he and his friend had already commissioned ANOTHER missing-nin with orders close to the same as the ones he'd just been given? The war-hawk had been known to kill officers under his command who acted in the field before they were given instructions. That old fear had never left him since the days in the war, hence why he tried talking the crippled man out of it.

"But… the jinchuuriki will still be executed anyway! Why go to all these measures…?"

A withering look sent his way shut him up immediately.

"I cannot rely on Hiruzen's men to do the job right, knowing what he thinks of the boy. Do not doubt my words, killing a jinchuuriki cannot be left up to half-grade ninja."

"O-of course, Danzo-sama. Forgive me for speaking out of place." The words allowed him to save whatever face he had in front of the leader of ROOT, who simply nodded as if saying he was pardoned.

Nigai sighed, relieved, when the man finally walked out of the small room, clutching to his chest a box of medicine as an alibi. It was too late to withdraw the orders he had sent to the Iwa nuke-nin, these types of people had a tendency to seek for revenge when their time was wasted on a phantom-assignment.

'Still…' Nigai shrugged. He would communicate Danzo's orders as well. The chances of the job getting done with two men working at it would be higher after all, right?

xxx

_Later That Night…_

Naruto looked up from his work, impressed with how much he was able to get done in just under an hour.

Across his sitting-room, which he had cleared of all furniture and unnecessary clutter, like the multitude of papers on which he wrote his research notes as well as the actual texts themselves, was an open scroll, about five feet in diameter, crossed over another of the same width and spanning the entire length of the area.

Kabuto had really come through for him, even arriving at his apartment with all the materials thirty minutes before he said he would. And all it cost him was some of his blood…

Naruto rubbed his abdomen through his flimsy white shirt, feeling the ghost-pain on his skin where the needle had penetrated into his liver. He was aware of some of the uses of blood, medical or otherwise. Not much, mind you, but enough to know he would be making a huge gamble entrusting his life fluid to someone else. Kabuto could as well be holding the key to his soul in his hands with that little sample.

Naruto shook the thought away. He didn't need doubts when he was about to attempt something momentous, and possibly foolish, like this.

About half a year ago, Naruto had come across a reference to the Shodaime Hokage, Senju Hashirama, detailing how he had used his skill in **Mokuton**, Wood Release ninjutsu to create the forests that surrounded Konoha and a good part of Fire Country within a day.

The information looked very unreal at both first and second glance. Naruto didn't care that the man was a hokage, there was no way a normal human could do something like that and still be standing, grinning like a fool for a sketch-artist to take his picture at the end of it. It was simply not possible.

He had written off the account as an exaggeration on the part of the author of the scroll, until he found another reference a few days later that said the same thing, this time with evidence that it had indeed been done and witnessed.

From there, Naruto had stopped passing it off as the man's luck and deduced that Hashirama had a secret source to his power. It was more or less confirmed when he read how the head of the Senju clan used his power to subdue the bijuu and scatter them across the elemental nations. That one definitely took the cake.

Nobody, not even a jinchuuriki now that he thought about it, could dish out tailed-beasts like pets single-handedly. The entire village had its hands full with the Kyuubi, and the Fourth actually lost his life to it, but this man had apparently done it without problems! Naruto had torn his hair out in frustration, looking into the most obscure of texts he could scrounge up to find out what the man's secret was. The boy had given up only a few weeks into the research, deeming it a worthless endeavor (if a hokage wanted to keep a secret, it would stay a secret, right? the Sandaime notwithstanding…) and opted to work on his taijutsu instead.

It wasn't until a few days ago, when he was having trouble sleeping that he chanced upon another reference, this time of the Nidaime, and how he was able to conjure entire lakes out of thin air in seconds. They said he had an unnaturally high affinity to Suiton element, but Naruto knew better.

Two hokage, brothers at that, wielding god-like powers that should at the very least have been passed on to their children through the gene pool but never were? If THAT was a coincidence then Naruto's mother was really Senju Tsunade! And his hair was actually pink!

The research floodgates were reopened and those next few days (and nights) were spent agonizing over what the two men could possibly have in common besides blood that made them such strong shinobi.

After being re-introduced to the feeling of his head about to explode from frustration and failure, Naruto had passed out on top of a picture of the brothers standing together next to the newly dubbed 'Village Hidden in the Leaves'.

Waking up in the middle of the day, the first thing Naruto had seen through foggy eyes looked so small, so insignificant, that he doubted he would have seen it had his face not been as close to the picture as it was.

Just under the slightly skewed fur-collar of the Nidaime's armor was a shiny, blue, crystal pendant hanging from the man's neck. Apparently, he secretly shared a fashion style with his brother.

But what did a good-luck charm have to do with the Nidaime's skill with water, you ask?

Why, only that THE BASTARDS USED FRIGGIN' CHAKRA CRYSTALS TO PERFORM ALL THEIR JUTSU!

And how was that possible? Naruto had asked himself that the moment he found out. You don't just FIND chakra crystals already attuned specifically to your chakra, do you? No, definitely not, which left only one other alternative.

They made the crystals themselves.

But the process of making such a crystal would supposedly involve imbuing a fragment of chakra absorbing rock with so much of the energy that just its compressed form would serve as a store for a few lifetimes! Just the spill from such a constant action would make the process take several decades, yet these guys managed to make their names famous in their teens!

So how did they guide chakra into a chunk of rock and continuously compress it until it crystallized the mineral structure, all without wasting even a single drop of it?

Why, using seals of course!

Apparently, the Senju made deals with the Uzumaki, the seal-masters of their time, way before Konoha was even thought up. Naruto had been ecstatic to learn he had a whole clan (back about three months ago) that specialized in such a deadly art, but his high immediately collapsed when he found out that every last one of them was killed in the Third Great War by Iwa and Kumo's allied forces. He was the last remaining one, and he couldn't even proudly say that.

Because now that he knew he was a jinchuuriki, he wasn't sure if he was actually an Uzumaki, or it was just a name thrown at him because no one shared it. He wouldn't put that past the villagers, after all, who names their kid after a ramen ingredient?

But enough about that, the Uzumaki must have helped out Hashirama and Tobirama by building them the sealing arrays for their project. Arrays that Naruto was now inspecting critically for any flaws that might unexpectedly blow him, and to an extent, Konoha, up.

He wasn't a seal-master by a longshot, but any buffoon could copy off the characters for channeling and compressing chakra; the first stage in making a storage seal, explosive seal, or even a **kuchiyose**/summoning seal, from a scroll on a beginner's instruction manual and apply it on a sheet of paper with ink mixed with his blood to make sure the chakra didn't stray from its path. It also helped greatly that he had a steady writing hand from making notes for months on end.

After that it was just a simple matter of placing the whittled down piece of rock on the receiving node, sit in the middle of the magnified-to-scale transmitting end, make a ram seal to help focus, and channel away! With a bit of modification by extending the seals to cover the rock from four sides at once, Naruto made sure the chakra would compress evenly from all directions and not result in an uneven overload that might destroy it… and his apartment.

Sitting in his predesigned spot, Naruto once again prayed to Kami above to let his experiment work. Hypothetically speaking, it supposedly took a teenage Hashirama several months to make his crystal. Luckily, Naruto had about twelve times the chakra Hashirama did at the time, and a recovery rate ten times greater. If he pushed through all night and part of the following day, he might just make it before they came to drag him away to be judged.

xxx

Fugaku stretched and flexed his arms before opening the door to his house and walking in.

He'd had a very tiring day, finishing up the summons and reminders (formalities really) for the various people needed in the following day's hearing and sending them out. The work actually took him several hours into the night because he also had to complete the whole presentation, and all he wanted to do now was eat his dinner then collapse on the bed next to his gorgeous wife…

…who should be coming to welcome him right about now.

…

Damn, where was that woman? It took the Uchiha clan-head nearly a full minute to register that all the lights in the house were still off.

"Mikoto-" he called into the house, receiving no answer. She couldn't have gone off to sleep already, could she?

A silhouette stepped out from the shadows in the corner of the room. The chakra signature settled Fugaku's growing fears.

"Itachi, where…"

His words died on his lips and his eyes widened when he saw that his son was garbed in full ANBU gear, and, at his side, held a blade stained with red.

"Mother will not be coming,"

Fugaku's jaw hung open, his jounin mind, though out of practice, was racing to put the picture together. His limbs unconsciously moved into the beginning kata for the Interceptor Fist, but he wasn't really paying attention.

There it was again, that feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Fugaku's sharingan activated to stare into his son's.

"Itachi, you-"

In but three seconds, the head of the Uchiha was no more, his last sight being the fabled mangekyou sharingan awakening in his first-born son.

xxx

A/N: **OMG, he actually did it! And what's this, Naruto had a secret trump card all along? Don't ask me to explain how the crystal works, I'll do that when he's actually going to use it.**

**Question: How does Naruto know about the seal array used?**

**Answer: How did Sasuke recognize a summoning seal in the second stage of the Chuunin Exams? Naruto's been doing nothing but ninja for about a year and a half, so why shouldn't he be able to rationalize this kind of stuff? In a world where a six-year old is allowed to become a gennin during wartime, I'm amazed some things haven't even been tried out yet.  
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	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven: -Fire!**

"Hokage-sama!"

Hiruzen normally didn't appreciate being woken up at his house at three in the morning, but today was an exception.

"What is it?" he urged the panting, horrified chuunin to speak, making what he hoped was a worried face.

"The Uchiha! They've all been massacred!"

"WHAT!" Hey, he had to put on an act for them, didn't he?

The chuunin nodded more than was required, as if needing to remind it to himself as well.

"They just found the clan-head's son, Uchiha Sasuke, asleep in his bed! He's fine though, we think he slept through the whole thing, and he's being taken to hospital as we speak. So far he's the only one confirmed alive."

If he was faking his shock before, it now came full-force. "What did you say?"

"Uchiha Sasuke, he's alive!"

'That wasn't part of the plan!' Hiruzen near panicked now. How could Itachi be so cruel as to condemn young Sasuke to such a lonely fate? And to have slept through it all… Sasuke wouldn't be happy about that when he woke up… if he hadn't already.

"That's good news and I'm glad to hear it, but we can't let our guard down. Go round up the jounin and any active ninja already awake! Have them scour the area, but don't engage, we don't know who is responsible or what their strength is!"

"HAI!"

The chuunin ran off into the darkness, Hiruzen hurrying back into his house to dress for battle.

'I hope Itachi at least left some tracks to lead up to him.'

xxx

Itachi released the chuunin on the evening guard-detail at the West gate from his grip, letting the knocked-out ninja fall to the ground with an *Oomph!*. His shoulders shook slightly in fatigue, and he could feel the strain catching up to him. If he didn't leave soon, he wouldn't be able to make it out of Fire Country in time.

The recently self-proclaimed nuke-nin looked down at the second person to fall to his new genjutsu technique, the **Tsukiyomi**. It was so formidable that his father and this random chuunin were rendered helpless in seconds under it; Itachi supposed he had to thank Madara for that one. In the imaginary world, he had just shown this man a recap of how he took down nearly all the Uchiha while he tortured him slightly, just enough to put him under for a few hours.

Now he was truly a rogue ninja. He had only been able to leave a last-minute message to Sasuke in the form of a memory genjutsu, administered during the boy's sleep that would play itself out whenever Sasuke fell unconscious of unnatural means. Itachi could only hope it would be enough to push Sasuke to better himself, and eventually bring the boy to hate him to the point he would be willing to kill his older brother.

But just before he left the compound, Itachi had staked out the secret shrine that was sometimes used as a clan-meeting venue. His mangekyou sharingan had been active at the time, just in case he encountered a strong foe, but he had instead found a hidden script on the tablet containing the last supposed words of Uchiha Madara.

What he discovered about the mangekyou changed everything he knew and believed in, but it was too late to back out now. Madara had played him like a fiddle, and he was now almost completely trapped in the man's grasp.

Still, Itachi hadn't been ANBU captain just for his strength. He had a wit unrivaled by any of his peers' and even above. Now that he knew what he did about the accursed eye, he could initiate a plan to counter Madara's apparent one.

Which was why he stopped at one last place before making his way to the gates. He had intended to leave some kind of evidence linking him to Shisui's murder to spare Naruto when the time for his hearing came around, but he saw that the gaki had things in order already, if the sealing procedure he was privy to was any indication. Itachi deduced that Naruto planned to make some kind of escape from Konoha, and so changed things accordingly at the last minute. Making up a plan on the fly to counter Madara would definitely be easier if he had a jinchuuriki he could easily contact from outside the village.

Otherwise, the Sandaime had informed him that he would try to delay the trial for a few days. Itachi knew better though, being aware of the kind of hate and fear the villagers all held for the boy. It was only a matter of time before they found some other reason to incarcerate him. It seemed Naruto knew this too, hence the escape plan.

In that case, it would be best to let events play out and contact young Naruto when they were both 'safely' out of the village.

Sensing chakra signatures nearing his location, Itachi suppressed his own and disappeared into the early morning leaving only the smallest of signs that he had even been there.

xxx

_That afternoon_…

The council of fire was almost fully assembled in the meeting room, loudly discussing the implications of the now-common knowledge of the Uchiha massacre.

Just two hours ago, a heavily injured gate guard was brought in to the hospital to be treated by medics. When he recovered enough, the man revealed the identity of his attacker and the one responsible for wiping out the Uchiha clan; none other than former ANBU captain, Uchiha Itachi.

It caused an uproar among some of the civilian clans who held the Uchiha on a high pedestal after having traded with them, but mostly because the Uchiha were their security as the Village Police. Some actually tried to pin the blame on Naruto, saying that he had finished off what he started with Shisui, but there was no evidence to actually support that theory while the chuunin-guard had a first-hand confession from Itachi himself.

Already there was talk of providing a high-detail ANBU escort for young Sasuke, to discourage any enemy of the Uchiha, both outside and inside Konoha, from having any ideas of killing the boy now that he was vulnerable.

Danzo himself wondered about Itachi's speculated last-minute change of heart. There was no harm in letting young Sasuke live, and it would give the village a chance to rebuild their clan of sharingan users. All in all, it was an extremely fortunate occurrence because, rather than leave Konoha completely without the bloodline and their enemies with a chance of acquiring their own, Itachi had left his home village with a possibility to get even stronger now.

The cripple was already smacking himself on the head for not thinking of suggesting it earlier. He had toyed with the thought of sending his operatives to kidnap one of the infants from their Compound, but had given up that idea, seeing as it would be almost impossible to keep such a ninja a secret when all the bodies had been accounted for and were already burning on a pyre to keep the secrets in their bodies… secret.

At least he managed to salvage a number of active sharingan from the corpses by sneaking one of his own men in as part of the post-mortem team. Now he only had to wait for Orochimaru's reply to know if the former child of Konoha would be willing to perform the grafting procedure for him in return for a fresh batch of 'test-subjects' from some of his recruits with bloodlines in ROOT.

Danzo suddenly grinned, surprising some of the council members watching him, waiting for his opinion. He'd just found the perfect mission for 117, one where he could blab all he wanted about his abilities…

Yes, he was really evil.

Danzo looked at the last of the clan-heads entering the meeting room to join in the arguments, and decided it was time to initiate his other plan.

The Sandaime would be coming along soon, after visiting the hospital to verify that Sasuke was not too traumatized, and he needed to set things up by then. The scarred man gave an almost imperceptible nod, prompting the ROOT operative concealed in the room to leave inconspicuously and perform her pre-designated task.

Someone needed to remind those distracted, slacking ANBU that they had a suspect to apprehend.

xxx

Naruto gasped and released the chakra flow, falling flat on the floor. The blue-glowing seals that functioned basically as a funnel slowly faded to a dull black and became little more than harmless characters on paper.

The process had taken more out of him than he had expected, but it was more than worth it. Lying in the centre of the receiver node of the sealing arrays was a small octagonal-shaped, purple prism. He wasn't aware at the time, but as he'd been scraping the bottom of his reserves he had touched on just a bit of the Kyuubi's chakra, which was absorbed into the rock as well before the crystal bonds were fully formed.

The jinchuuriki slowly crawled forward, ignoring the scream of protest from his muscles, to where his ultimate creation lay cooling from the stress it had undergone for many continuous hours. It was quite a marvel to look at, with its edges smooth and clean, and its corners perfectly rounded. Naruto could only think of one word to describe it:

"Beautiful…" Naruto whispered, afraid that if he said it too loudly reality would be snatched away from him.

Reaching for it with trembling arms, he caught the loop of string he'd previously threaded the crystal with and set it over his head, barely managing to get it on right before he collapsed, spread-eagled on his back over the receiver node.

Naruto was feeling the effects of his chakra exhaustion, something he'd only experienced once when he was foolish enough to test how far his limits went, and only wanted to let his eyes fall shut...

A little nap now wouldn't hurt.

Sadly, it was not to be as almost exactly like his nightmares had been, three ANBU crashed through his front door to walk in on the scene.

And froze when they saw just where their target was.

Naruto's eyes wearily darted around as he wondered why they hadn't grabbed him yet. He then realized how he must look, lying in the middle of some huge sealing structure.

"W-what's up g-guys?" He chuckled nervously. 'Oh shit, I'm really, really screwed now!'

The squad's taicho snapped at his subordinate, "Lizard!"

"Hai!" The man went through handseals and spewed water from beneath his mask, dousing both Naruto and the open scrolls.

Predictably, the charged ninja ink didn't wash off but the paper DID get soggy. And so did Naruto.

The boy's eyes widened when the taicho moved forward next, hand crackling with lightning chakra.

"No, wait!"

The cry was too late, and the man touched his chakra to the small pool of water growing on the floor, electrocuting both the scroll-paper and the young boy unable to move out of the way.

Tired as he was, Naruto couldn't even muster the strength to scream out loud and instead succumbed to the sweet, welcoming unconsciousness as the papers around him crinkled up.

xxx

Hiruzen was just settling the matter of who would get what trading privileges when the doors to the meeting room were flung open by an ANBU retrieval squad bearing an unconscious Naruto in their arms, the boy's hands securely cuffed.

"As summoned, Hokage-sama!"

The Sandaime quickly hid his surprise, instead choosing to turn to the side and look at Danzo who was smiling…

'That bastard! He planned for this, I know he did!'

"Hokage-sama," the war-hawk's tone was almost amused. "Since we're here and this issue of the trial has presented itself as scheduled, why don't we nip this in the bud right now, so to speak?"

Before Hiruzen could even come up with a viable argument to that, Hyuuga Hiashi chose that moment to speak out. "Well I, for one, wouldn't want to have to come back here just to settle something like this. I say we take care of it now."

Poor Sandaime was overruled before he could even open his mouth when Aburame Gen offered his piece. "Konoha's military forces have been considerably reduced and our clans are in panic, fearing an attack from our enemies now that we are vulnerable. Therefore, we should take this time to clear up any matters that require the council so that we can return to organizing our clansmen and women as soon as possible."

'Always with the logic. Why!' Hiruzen whined in his thoughts, but it was Homura who landed the final, crushing hammer-strike in one of his rare moments of insight.

"If we let this issue go unchecked, the Daimyo and other nations will question if we are becoming lax in our duties now that the Uchiha aren't with us. It could completely devastate our mission rates, ruining the economy!"

And so it was that a thoroughly beaten Hiruzen complied, "This council will now recognize the trial of suspect Uzumaki Naruto for the murder of Uchiha Shisui."

xxx

Halfway into the hearing, Naruto woke up, slightly rejuvenated after his nap, only to find himself in chakra-suppressing handcuffs sitting in a chair before a room full of glaring, or stoic, villagers.

"…" The boy blinked a few times, thinking he was in a dream of some kind.

"Naruto, are you awake?"

The addressed looked up into a worried Hiruzen's face.

Wait, that wasn't right. In his dream the Sandaime was glaring at him just like the others…

"…Ojisan?"

"We need an account of what happened from you, Naruto, before we can make any decision." Hiruzen turned away to keep himself from looking into his pseudo-grandson's eyes, fearing that he would break down to tears if he did.

He hadn't seen Naruto in a while, but he was sure the last time he did the boy's traits weren't so… beast-like. What exactly had he been up to? The ANBU had said that they found him in the middle of a big sealing ritual, and they believed they had been able to interrupt it before it went any further. Unfortunately, the actual seals were now destroyed and no one but Naruto could say what it was he had been attempting.

'Could he have tried to break Minato's seal?' Hiruzen had thought, worriedly, when he received the information. A few other council members thought so and had sworn to see Naruto dead before the end of the day for attempting to release the Kyuubi.

While the Sandaime was thinking, Naruto had more time to wake up and realize what they were asking.

"Well," Naruto started, and gulped nervously when everyone's attention turned to him. "I WAS there with Shisui that day, but I didn't kill him."

"Oh?" asked one red-haired woman incredulously. "And who did then?"

"Uchiha Itachi." He stated simply, slightly unnerved when the room went silent.

"Of course it was Itachi, why wouldn't it be?" the woman mocked through the silence. "Just like Itachi killed the Uchiha last night, right?"

"…Itachi… killed the Uchiha last night?"

If she sensed his confusion, she had no intention of showing it. "And just why was there no evidence of Itachi's presence at the crime-scene?"

"He's an ANBU captain, you tell me!"

"…"

"Nevertheless," Danzo said. "You cannot prove you AREN'T the one who killed Shisui, can you? Unless we can read your mind and know you aren't lying-"

"Actually, we do have a Yamanaka in the room," Hiruzen cut in, hopeful with a new prospect, turning to the man in question. "Inoichi, can you read his memories?"

The blond man shook his head no, a grim look on his face. "The seal causes another consciousness to be present in the same body. If I try to read those memories I might plunge into ITS thoughts instead. It's a fifty-fifty chance that I wouldn't be willing to take. Ever." Inoichi did his best to skirt the Sandaime's law by refraining from mentioning directly about the seal and its relation to Naruto who was present in the room.

"Uchiha Itachi's account cannot be taken, seeing as he is now a missing-nin of Konoha," came the cool, controlled voice of Gen. "To keep from further debate on it, I suggest we put the verdict to a vote."

A chorus of 'Aye's and yeses rang out in the room.

"I vote for immediate execution." The redhead went first. She had lost her man and daughter in the Kyuubi attack eight and a half years ago, having been out of Konoha herself while her husband and the girl were alone in the house. She had vowed never to forgive the container for the actions of Kyuubi ever since she came back to a mass funeral, the only remnant of her beloveds being some nicks on a mass tombstone.

Naruto watched, horrified, as one after another the civilian clans and a few ninja clans voted for his execution. Not even the Sandaime's imploring looks could change their decision.

"This is a difficult choice to make," Gen said when his turn was reached. "But the evidence points to only one logical outcome, that which cannot go unpunished. Furthermore, not one of us knows the true extent of your abilities, according to some accounts from the instructors at the academy. I vote for execution." 'And your release might cause a wide-scale revolt in the village.' was what he didn't say, but knew nearly everyone in the room, except Naruto, was thinking it.

Naruto had thought he was prepared for this, but to actually see and hear it happen… When the villagers treated him lower than dirt, he had tolerated it, because they tolerated him. They might have spit and cursed at him, but they let him live in the village all the same. Now… now they were going to actively chase him out! Sure he had a trump card in case they wanted to kill him, but they actually DID want to kill him.

Naruto held back tears, stopping a hiccup before it started. He would not cry. Not to them, not for himself. Somewhere, in the very recesses of his mind, he'd known this would happen one day, and had accepted it. Everything else he'd done had just been waiting out the inevitable.

The last of the three remaining clan heads voted for life imprisonment, leaving the hokage as the only one who hadn't voted. Naruto looked at the man who had gone against his people's wishes to take care of him as best as he could, waiting to see what his vote would be. It had already been decided through majority count that he would be executed, but for reasons of closure, Naruto wanted to know what the Sandaime's vote would be.

Hiruzen was lost in his thoughts of the past and everything he had done, or tried to up until that moment.

**Flashback**

Around mid-morning, when the sun was shining through light cloud-cover and the air was thick with moisture from the previous night's showers, Hiruzen escorted a six-year old Naruto past the academy gates, trying his best to ignore the boy's protests that he would be around the kids who refused to play with him, and even some who bullied him.

'I'm sorry, Naruto. If I don't do this, then I can't be sure you will be safe from the people who wish to harm you, and I can't have you running around the village unchecked.'

The Sandaime wished with all his heart that he could spare an ANBU or two to look after the boy, but they were still recovering from losses incurred during the Kyuubi attack. The shinobi were stressed enough with the extra missions, as was he himself, taking up work he had thought he left behind when he retired.

"But, Ojisaaaaan…!"

"You'll enjoy it, Naruto, if only you give yourself time to adjust."

The boy only pouted in response.

"Oh, so that's how you want to be then?" he looked away in fake disappointment but really with a smile on his face. "And I was going to buy you a present if you got good grades in your first test…"

The words were barely out of his mouth when the lad had already scuttled over to the chuunin waiting by the doors.

"You better have that present ready, Ojisan!"

The Sandaime laughed heartily and waved goodbye to the young Naruto, giving the chuunin a nod.

When he left, Hideki lowered a stern look at his new charge. When he had said in the instructors' meeting that his class had a free spot due to one of the civilian clan's kids dropping out, he hadn't expected to be saddled with the Kyuubi boy. The hokage had said he wanted Uzumaki to learn to protect himself, but he knew what this was really about. He had unknowingly signed up for baby-sitting duty.

"Get in!" he barked at the little boy, who lowered his saddened face and did as told. Hard to believe an age old demon was trapped in that tiny body… Still, the Uzumaki would be lucky to even learn anything in his class. There was no way he was slowing down his other students just for one brat who wasn't even supposed to enroll for another two years. He would just sit the boy in the back and let him watch the others, maybe he'll pick up a few things that way…

'**Nuther-Flashback**

"Naruto, why did you throw paint bombs at that man's cart?"

The boy looked away, an annoyed look on his face and mumbled something.

"I didn't hear that."

"I said, he refused to sell me the mangoes and told me I didn't even need them. But I was hungry, Ojisan! And Hideki-sensei said we have to eat our fruits if we wanna grow up!"

Hiruzen sighed, disappointed. He hadn't expected the situation to be this bad, but maybe if he talked to the man…

'No,' he shook his head. The villagers weren't just angry at Naruto, they were also afraid of him. If only he could show them that little Naruto didn't mean any harm…

"I didn't even hurt anyone, and he didn't ask when I took a mango after! It only had a bit of paint on it, it was like he was gonna throw it away anyway!" Naruto continued defending his actions.

Hiruzen smiled when he heard that, his mind already working out a plan. "So, he didn't ask, did he?" Naruto shook his head, no. "Then that's good. Run along now, I'll talk it over with him."

Naruto flashed a huge smile at the elderly man and ran out of the office, startling the secretary outside.

Hiruzen watched the little boy's antics as he left, already having made up his mind not to do anything about the cart-owner. He would instead let Naruto do his pranks and show everyone that he was as much a threat as their own children. If the boy was as lucky as he was today again, he would also at least gain some access to the things denied to him.

**End Flashbacks**

Now, these same people he would readily give his life for were about to condemn a child he loved like his own! Sarutobi Hiruzen was too lost in his mind, thinking of what they wanted to be done to the boy, to register his name being called. A whispered, "Execution…" left his lips as his whole stature denoted disappointment in his fellow villagers.

Naruto couldn't believe what he'd heard.

Execution…?

Ojisan… the man he loved like he would a parent… voted for execution?

The tears that threatened to spill did so with gusto, as Naruto unconsciously channeled the Kyuubi's chakra. His quivering figure morphed under its influence, turning him into something… demonic.

"Hokage-sama!"

Hiruzen realized too late what he'd said when he felt the bijuu chakra leak out from the boy who was looking at him in a mix of horror, anguish, betrayal… He couldn't find it in himself to move when he saw the almost broken form of young Naruto transform.

The ANBU taicho, sensing his hokage's reluctance to move, jumped forward and slapped a pre-made suppression tag on the twitching jinchuuriki before he could attack his leader.

The council members were all horrified to feel the tainted chakra from so many years ago, and as Naruto fell under, the strain reaching his mind, they called out for him to be done in on the spot.

"KILL HIM NOW!"

"DON'T GIVE IT A CHANCE TO ESCAPE!"

"DO IT ANBU-SAN! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?"

"SILENCE!"

Surprisingly, the call for order came not from Hiruzen, who was still slightly dazed, but from Danzo.

"We can't do anything to him while he is in the village. We have to remember what he holds, and that he can release it at any time he wishes. What just happened proved that the Kyuubi cannot be restrained by simple methods. If we want our village to remain standing by the end of the day, I move that he be executed at the maximum security prison in Fire Country."

"I SECOND!"

"I SECOND THAT TOO!"

"I AS WELL!"

"TAKE IT AWAY!"

Danzo turned to look at his rival. "Hiruzen…?"

"Do it." He replied in an emotionless tone. It was taking all of his skill not to just break down right then and there. "ANBU! Take him away!"

'I'm sorry, Naruto. I'm sorry, Minato. I'm so sorry…'

Danzo had to suppress a chuckle on seeing the 'god of shinobi' looking so defeated. He himself had no intention of letting the jinchuuriki get to the prison. He had no doubt that if Naruto really wanted to he could release the Nine-Tails, and unlike the other council members, he had no wish to lose such an important piece of the village as the prison. It was as much a symbol as the hokage monument, and there was no guarantee that Uzumaki would even die there.

Luckily, he had already arranged for an 'intervention' for Naruto along the way. Too bad it wasn't in any way for the benefit of the jinchuuriki.

Yet again, Danzo's face twisted into a smile as he watched one of Konoha's threats get carted away by the ANBU squad.

xxx

Outside the hokage tower was a large gathering waiting to hear the results of the trial. Some paranoid villagers had come out armed with knives and sticks, just in case the demon got away, so that they could take justice into their own hands.

A cheering shout from some of those nearest to the doors alerted everyone to the unconscious prisoner being hauled out by two ANBU, his hands held up in chains for all to see and sate the public's growing bloodlust.

It was only when the crowd was assured of the demise of the hated jinchuuriki that they at last dispersed, most unwilling to look at the face of an eight-and-a-half year old boy being sent to his death. No matter how much they despised the Kyuubi, it still wore the guise of a little kid and it would churn many stomachs to see the monster that killed their loved ones put on a pair of puppy-dog eyes.

Soon, among the ones left behind were a wide-eyed Hinata and her caretaker. They were here to wait for the return of Hiashi, and just happened to be treated to a front row view of the captured Naruto.

Hinata didn't know the boy all that well, having been confined in the Hyuuga main compound for most of her life, but she had encountered him once when some academy kids were bullying her after she ran out of the house into the nearby woods.

Just the presence of the yellow-haired kid had scared away the bullies, and she had been surprised to find herself kneeling alone in the dirt, her rescuer having long disappeared to do something or the other. Hinata had then tried to find out as much as she could about the blond, and mostly got his name and the fact that he was hated and feared by nearly everyone. He was supposedly the best at the academy, which she was supposed to start soon in the year, but he was an orphan and had no friends. At all.

It struck a chord within her, seeing someone who was belittled even more than she was, but her opinion changed the day she saw him up close, full of confidence and strength; her complete opposite.

He didn't care for the treatment they dished out at him, and took it all instead, throwing it back with a flourish.

Hinata had stopped feeling sorry for him since that day, and only aspired to be like him; able to take bullshit from nearly all sides and fling it back with glee. She then started to get more serious in her basic training, and stopped showing mercy to her little sister, Hanabi, in their spars. Her father, who had once looked ashamed whenever she was in the same room as him now proved indifferent to her changes, and this suited her just fine. It only meant that she was finally doing something right.

Whereas before little Hinata was interested in caring for others and earning their respect the right way, she was now growing cold, bordering on harsh. Even as she stood, watching Naruto's face as he was taken away, there was a short distance between her and the Branch-House caretaker.

Hinata, though, wasn't expecting Naruto to get caught like he was. She didn't care all that much about him, but wished to know what he did wrong, so that she wouldn't repeat the same in her emulation of him. Perhaps when her father left the council room she could ask him what had happened, since none of the clan members were allowed to talk about it.

xxx

Miles away from Konoha, a blonde man received a message via runner at the previously agreed upon rendezvous point.

The man smirked on reading the delivered scroll. "So this is the route then, hmm?"

He took a second to make a few calculations.

"If I leave now I'll have time to prepare before intercepting the target." He said to himself, rolling up the parchment with his instructions and stowing it away in an equipment pouch.

xxx

In another part of Fire Country, a fairly large man got his own set of instructions.

"Haku," he called to the boy who was travelling with him. "We leave now."

"Hai." came the answer.

xxx

Uchiha Sasuke stared emotionlessly at the white ceiling of his hospital room. Outside the door, silhouettes of doctors, medics and various others passed. The only constant shadows were those of the chuunin posted right outside the room.

But Sasuke didn't care about any of that. Lying on his back, the bedsheets pushed down below his chin, the boy lacked the strength to even lift himself to sit up.

He'd just learned of the fate of his family members. In one night, the entirety of the Uchiha were gone, vanished like they'd never even existed. The only ones to bear the name who still lived, to his knowledge, were himself and his brother.

But where was aniki? Why wasn't he here with him? Was he hunting their parents' murderer?

Young Sasuke felt his eyes well up as he thought of his mother and father. They were both gone, and he would never see their faces again. He would never hear the gruff voice of his father, nor the sweet, caring one of his mother. He felt so… alone.

And he'd been asleep while they were probably fighting for their lives! Nii-san had joked before that with how heavily Sasuke slept he'd never be a true shinobi. Could this have been what he meant?

Sasuke hated himself with every fiber of his being for not having been there for his family. He half-thought it would have been better had he been killed like them, but the sound of his father chastising him in his mind for failing to uphold their name was enough to banish those weak thoughts.

'Mother, father… Why?'

The big question. Why would anyone do this? The Uchiha were good people, they never did anything wrong!

His pondering was cut short however, when his door opened and a nurse walked in, slightly irritated because the guards insisted on a full body search before letting her enter the room.

"How are you feeling, Sasuke?" she asked, trying to sympathize with him as best as she could.

"I can't sleep. I don't want to."

The nurse sighed. Her patient was suffering from a phobia of letting his eyes close for more than a few seconds. It was perfectly understandable, considering the news that had been broken to him.

"Alright," she took out a dose of tranquilizer from her bodice pocket, already loaded into a needle and syringe. "This will help you fall asleep. You need all the rest you can get, you know."

The young woman then injected the drug into the boy who flinched slightly, but not much. She smiled at him, admiring his bravery. A little kid could take what some ANBU couldn't without any fuss, something she rarely saw in her line of work.

Sasuke felt the tranquilizer take effect slowly and let it claim him. That nice lady said he needed to rest, so he didn't struggle as he lost consciousness.

The nurse smiled when she saw that the injection had worked as it should. The dose would put him down for about eight hours. Hopefully, he would have a nice, calm, dreamless sleep.

The unsuspecting woman then logged in the medication to a clipboard attached to the foot of Sasuke's bed and left the room, missing the boy's faint twitching.

xxx

The Village Hidden in the Leaves was mostly in celebration that night.

In the dark hours following the fall of the Uchiha, the news that the Kyuubi was finally gone left even the lowest spirit feeling just a little lighter than before.

Ino, of course, couldn't understand what all the excitement was about. She'd been informed that there was a party of sorts that her father was required to attend with his whole family. Her mother had refused to say what, or who, the party was for, only that it was some kind of celebration. Her friends, Shika and Chouji, would also be attending with their respective parents, so she wouldn't be so left out in the crowd.

The little girl chose her best dress, with her mother's approval of course, and slipped it on. She then straightened out her hair, and put on the last touches, just in time to for her mother to inform her that they were about to leave.

Ino smiled, happily, as she walked next her mother, the woman's hand wrapped protectively around her own smaller one. She always enjoyed parties, even if it was only adults present at them. Even more today because she rarely got to stay up late, and she believed that this was the time all the fun stuff happened.

It didn't matter at all to her what they were supposed to be celebrating. Maybe even her new friend, Sakura-chan, would be attending? Things could get pretty boring with just Shika and Chouji.

xxx

Hinata neither tried to become conspicuous, nor did she attempt to find a corner to hide in. Her father was evidently pleased with the way his daughter was holding herself at the gathering that all major clan-heads and their families were attending. Little Hanabi, though, had been left behind since Hiashi believed she was still too young to be out at this time of night.

But Hinata wasn't thinking at all about her father as she did the lightest mingling with some of the people in the room and their kids. The formal reason for the party was to remember the Uchiha, or something, but Hinata knew that the true reason had something to do with Naruto being taken away in restraints.

This celebration wasn't the only one taking place in Konoha; she'd passed at least twelve others on her way here with her father and their escort. They couldn't all be remembering those Uchiha, could they? No, this was something to do with Naruto being gone. She was sure of it.

Hinata suspected that the boy who'd shown her the best direction her life could take was never coming back, and a small part of her was sad because she wouldn't get the chance to prove herself as his equal to him, or so she believed.

Well, in that case, the best thing to do would be to take up his mantle. Voids were meant to be filled, and there was an opening for the resident village badass. Out of those in her age-group, Hinata believed she would be the best to take up this position, but it would take some time to reach the level Naruto was said to be at.

Nevertheless, Hinata's goal was set in stone now. Konoha had thought they were rid of Uzumaki Naruto, but his ambition and determination would still be here. Hinata would make sure of that.

xxx

When night fell, the ANBU chose a secluded spot to camp in, somewhere in the dense forest that surrounded them.

After taking their rations, and giving the Uzumaki some out of pity, they forcefully injected him with a potent knock-out drug to put him under for a while. As a further precaution, they placed a suppression tag on his forehead, and bound his hands and feet with ninja wire.

Naruto had already lost consciousness by the time they were doing this, and he was fully prepared for a once-more nightmare-filled unshakable sleep.

He was surprised to instead find himself in a glowing room, standing before a man who was covered in a blindingly white light.

"Hello Naruto."

The boy was confused. He knew he had been dosed with something to put him to sleep, but none of his dreams were ever this weird.

The man knelt down to his level, and slightly out of the brilliant light, allowing Naruto to see his blond hair, blue eyes and a Konoha hitai-ate.

'Huh?' Naruto blinked disbelievingly.

"I wanted to see you," the figure reached out and gently took the speechless jinchuuriki's hand. "I'm sorry, even though it's just a dream."

"Who are…"

"I'll always be with you, Naruto."

Before he could say anything more, Naruto found himself jarred awake by the morning light shining on his face. The ANBU who woke him up put away the hypodermic needle used to inject the stimulant, and roughly unbound the shocked boy.

"We're moving." The other barked the order, ready to go and get this mission over and done with.

Naruto staggered upright and rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands, still thinking about his dream.

'Was that…?'

xxx

_Two days later…_

Naruto had no energy to even think about escaping as he was marched along the path by the ANBU who were keeping a close watch on him from behind, chakra suppression seals held at the ready. But his lethargic state wasn't completely because of the meager amount of food he'd gotten since leaving the village.

Ojisan voted for his execution…

Why would he do that? Was he trying to send across some kind of message? Perhaps he was only speaking his thoughts and hadn't actually voted yet?

Naruto didn't even want to consider that the old man had turned on him as well. It would make no sense if he did; he was, after all, the one who set him right in his career alongside Kabuto.

But if there was someone all his hatred could be directed at, his name would be Uchiha Itachi, the teme that ruined his already crappy life.

Thinking of the nuke-nin restored some of Naruto's fire, and his will to live. He cautiously looked back at the two ANBU flanking him on both sides and considered his chances of taking them out.

He could still feel the cool facets of his crystal resting against his chest. That meant that they were likely still unaware of what its purpose was; an added advantage for the blond in handcuffs.

The crystal worked like an artificial hara, the node in the body where physical and spiritual energy were combined to form chakra, only that it already had an abundance of energy locked within it, holding the mineral particles together with an almost unbreakable force.

Only Naruto could synchronize with it, and only because it was made with his chakra. For anyone else wearing it, it could even interfere with their overall chakra control, sometimes jarring it at the most inopportune of times like when they were performing a jutsu, or feeling out enemy chakra signatures.

With the crystal serving as a conduit for the molding of chakra outside the body, it granted its user great control over the energy since it wasn't flowing in the body's coils, and was just waiting to be tapped into. All of the ninjutsu previously unavailable to the blond could now be performed with very little trouble.

As an added bonus, the hand-cuffs specifically blocked out the chakra coming from the target's own hara. An artificial one, like the Yondaime's seal that channeled the Kyuubi's chakra into Naruto was unaffected, hence why a separate suppression seal was required to block the red chakra as well.

Naruto, though, had no knowledge yet of the full extent of the mechanics involved with his little gem, but he knew how it worked, and most importantly, that he could still perform ninjutsu even though his chakra was blocked.

He was just formulating a plan to escape from the men guarding him when the leader's voice called out loudly for him to stop walking.

"Who's out there?" shouted the ANBU who was slowly reaching for a kunai from his holster.

Clapping could be heard as a blond man wearing a gray haori over fishnet and black pants walked out from behind one of the trees ahead of Naruto.

"So you sensed me. That means you're no pushover, hmm!" his blue eyes then narrowed dangerously when he saw Naruto. "It doesn't matter anyway, because I've found my target, and an audience to appreciate my art!"

He spoke too soon though, as almost immediately, a thick blanket of mist washed over the entire area, obscuring everything from view.

A/N: **GRRRR! Danzo's such a bastard, how could he do that to 117! And those villagers… Tch! Review if you're as mad about this development in the story as I am!**

**PS, Thank you all for following this story so far. You guys really made my day.**


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